My Brazilian Adventure - 3

Manaus and the Amazon

This week saw me returning to Manaus, to work with the Amazonas Big Band in preparation for tonight’s concert at the gorgeous Teatro Amazonas for the Amazonas Green Jazz Festival

Teatro Amazonas, built in 1896.

The Amazon region was the center of a well-documented cycle of exploitation of rubber, which happened between 1879 and 1912. Several cities here became extremely rich with the worldwide demand for rubber. Manaus still has many beautiful buildings from that era. The Teatro Amazonas is a replica of the Paris Opera. Yesterday I gave a piano workshop at the Palace of Justice, built in 1900, assembled here with pieces brought from Italy. Here are some images:

Palácio da Justiça, Manaus. Photos by Jovino Santos Neto

Only the wooden floors and frames were locally sourced. People told me that back in the heyday of rubber exports the families here would send their laundry to be washed in Paris, because the dark waters of the Rio Negro, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon, would stain the white linen. The Teatro Amazonas had performances by artists such as Enrico Caruso and Sarah Bernhardt, as well as our great Heitor Villa-Lobos, whose music was greatly influenced by his travels through the Amazon region. Tonight I am playing several of my compositions and arrangements with the Amazonas big band conducted by Maestro Rui Carvalho.