Ohio Choro Club Performs Saturday in Kent

Brazilian music will fill the air in downtown Kent Saturday as members of the Ohio Choro Group gather for the group's second annual reunion performance.

The group, founded in 2007 by then Kent State University ethnomusicology student Eric Murray, brings together musicians with a passion for Brazilian choro music.

The Ohio Choro Group played a regular gig at the for four years until 2012, when Murray left for Brazil to finish his dissertation.

Murray said he's flying back to Kent for the show Saturday from Porto Alegre, Brazil, and expects to join as many as a dozen former members of the group for the show at the Water Street Tavern.

He likened the Brazilian choro music to bluegrass music here in the states.

"This kind of music is like a social music," Murray said. "A lot of the people who play it are not necessarily professional musicians."

Fellow musicians are welcome to join members of the Ohio Choro Group during Saturday's show. The group will provide sheet music and offer tips to playing the style.

The typical instrumentation for choro ensembles can include guitars (six and seven-string), cavaquinho (a small four stringed lute of Portuguese origin), mandolin, accordion, pandeiro (a Brazilian style tamborine), woodwinds (especially flute, clarinet, and saxophone), and brass (trumpet, trombone, and tuba), Murray said.

"This is more of a community thing because it’s open to whoever plays music to come and join us … and learn some of the rhythyms and melodies,” Murray said.

The reunion show is scheduled for Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m.

Murray said the rhythms provide a rare treat for members of the audience who don't often hear such music.

"The music is beautiful," he said. "It’s fun. The rhythms are Brazilian rhythms, but it’s pretty much European melody and harmony mixed in with African rhythm. So it becomes uniquely Brazilian."