12. Jorge Morel (1931). Danza brasileira. 2’29’’

The Canadian guitarist Davis Joachim was performing in Estonia some time in the 1990s. By that time he was already more involved in music production than in active performing. He nevertheless gave a concert in Kuressaare and played Brazilian music. Among other pieces was Morel’s „Brazilian dance“, though Morel is not a Brazilian himself. Joachim said at that concert that his dream would come true if someone in the audience were to stand up and start dancing. He would then give up playing the guitar for good. Nobody got up to dance at least at that recital but it was certainly not because of a poor performance; on the contrary, this concert left an indelible impression on me and as a fledgling guitar student I later tried playing these pieces myself.

I got the notes from Davis and discovered that what was written down differed considerably from how he played the pieces on his record and at the concert. In any case he was right to make changes in the rhythm and notes of the compositions as the original version of this specific piece would probably not have been so memorable. Since I no longer remember exactly how he did it and the sheet music is not of much help here, I have worked out a personal version of this piece. To further increase the likelihood of someone dancing samba to this composition I have enlisted the help of my good friend Jorma to make the piece even more rhythmical.

Kristo Käo – guitar
Jorma Puusaag – percussion on the guitar