Huw Warren: Choro Choro Choro

The Welsh pianist Huw Warren is not a household name—though he ought to be—so a little background to Choro Choro Choro is appropriate, just in case the album is taken to have effervesced out of nowhere.

In the 1990s, Warren was co-leader of the singular London quartet Perfect Houseplants. The group's half-dozen albums positioned them approximately as the small-group inheritors of the unpredictable mantle of the city's maverick 1980s big band Loose Tubes, of which the Houseplants' saxophonist Mark Lockheart and drummer Martin France were alumni. Another notable association, among many, is Warren's longtime role as pianist, arranger and musical director for the English singer June Tabor, with whom as a member of the Quercus trio with saxophonist Iain Ballamy he recorded the acclaimed Quercus (ECM, 2013).

Other important albums include singer Lleuwen Steffan's sublime settings of proto-socialist Welsh hymns from the early 20th century, Duw A Wyr (Babel, 2005), which Warren produced and played on with Mark Lockheart, and Everything We Love And More (Babel, 2006), a quietly sensational compendium of miniature infinities recorded with the bassist Peter Herbert.

In 2024, among other academic posts, Warren is visiting professor of Jazz Piano at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, and Head of Jazz Ensembles at Cardiff University, in whose Concert Hall Choro Choro Choro was recorded.

Warren's love affair with Brazilian music began in London in the 1980s through his friendship with expat percussionist Bosco De Oliveiro, who was highly influential among the city's cutting edge F-IRE musicians' collective (F-IRE saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, now resident in Brooklyn, was baptised into Brazilian music this way). More recent encounters have included Jovino Santos Neto, Chico Buarque and Adriano Adewale.

On the ebullient and engaging Choro Choro Choro, Warren has adapted and arranged for unaccompanied piano nine classic choros by Ernesto Nazareth ("Atlantico," "Odeon"), Pixinguinha ("Agradecendo," "Naquele Tempo"), Chiquinha Gonzaga ("Gaúcho"), Jonas Pereira Da Silva ("Velho Amigo"), Hermeto Pascoal ("Intocável"), Jacob Do Bandolim ("Receita de Samba") and Guinga ("Choro pro Zé"). There are also two Warren originals, "Desequilibrado" and "Chorinho for Hermeto."

Warren concludes his liner note with a salute to his Brazilian mentors, "Obrigado profundo e sincero" (deep and heartfelt thanks). To which listeners may wish to add their gratitude.

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