Stephen Guerra: Um Violão na Cidade Maravilhosa

Buffalo-based guitarist-songwriter and professor Stephen Guerra's notation has developed a slight Brazilian accent. You notice it in small things like a major chord symbol with a capital "M."  Who is reading these charts? Musicians in several choro communities around the globe, as it turns out.

Take "Um Negocinho pro Tito," (track 9). Guerra first released it on his self-produced 2025 album No Balanço do Choro-Samba, which featured Rogério Souza on 7-string guitar, Eduardo Neves on flute and Thiago Souza on mandolin. He wrote the tune for a friend in Buffalo, but it has since become what he modestly calls "a favorite" among chorões in Rio de Janeiro and is starting to circulate in Japan, which comes as no surprise.  It sounds excellent on that first album (AAJ's review is here), and even better on Um Violão na Cidade Maravilhosa, with the addition of Fabiano Segalote on trombone, and Daniel Karin and Luciano King on percussion. In the intervening two years, the ensemble has become more relaxed, with a bit more jazz in the feel and a convivial roda-de-choro jam-session competitive spirit in the improvisations, particularly between the lead players. It is easy to imagine the piece entering the standard repertoire.

Um Violão na Cidade Maravilhosa is Guerra's second album to feature a playlist comprised solely of his compositions, and they are all beautifully crafted and expertly, joyously performed here. "Choro-Funk" (track one), announces the hybridity of the project with its combination of choro, samba, and samba-funk rhythms and clever melodic syncopations. "No Balanço de Niterói" is a warm tribute to his mentors and now colleagues, Rogério Souza and his mandolin-playing brother Ronaldo do Bandolim, which tries, as Guerra put it, "to capture their vibe, swing, and harmonic colorings."

By contrast, "Gente da Roça" springs from a misadventure Guerra had in wintery-cold Toronto, where he and a friend from the US had travelled to play with a Brazilian acquaintance. Out of ignorance, Guerra and his friend parked too far away. When they arrived, freezing, and the Brazilian asked why they did that, he replied, "somos gente da roça," meaning they were country folk, out of their element. Neves, who plays flute so beautifully on four of the tracks, pulls out his tenor saxophone for this one. His Stan Getz-like timbre and jazz-informed improvisation lend the track a hip mid-century-cool North American vibe.

 "Uma Valsa pro Nós Dois," one of two pieces Guerra wrote for his fiançée Nina, displays an elegant melody in a duo setting that employs the AABBACCA modified rondo form so typical of classic choro music. This, as he put it, is "one to dance at our wedding." A choro-polca, "Linda Nina" adds Karin's pandeiro to the mix to create what he calls "an ebullient, restless choro," which marks the beginning of their affair.   

Lovers of choro music will wish the happy couple the best and toast to the continued collaboration of Guerra and his distinguished friends north and south of the border.