Douglas Lora: Um Novo Caminho

Double trajectory

Award-winning seven-string guitarist Douglas Lora has long had two solid sides to his career, the popular and the classical, the improvisatory and the written. Jazz fans may know him from his recordings with Anat Cohen and Trio Brasileiro—featuring Dudu Maia on bandolim and Alexandre Lora on pandeiro—which highlight the improvisational prowess and empathy of that extraordinary group. Since 2011, they have been performing in the US and leading an annual choro workshop near Seattle. Their cred among choro aficionados in North America is well established. Alegria da Casa (Anzic, 2015)—which includes classics by Jacob do Bandolim ("Santa Morena") and Fon-Fon ("Murmurando") along with originals—introduced the joyous foursome to a wider audience. The Grammy-nominated Rosa dos Ventos (Anzic, 2017) offered new compositions that demonstrate the group's worldly way with the idiom, an approach that draws conceptually from jazz without imitating the sound of it.

And fans of Brazilian music may have caught Lora's supple baixaria in Caraivana, named for the historic town on the southern coast of Bahia—now an environmental preservation area—where they discovered one another, describing the encounter this way: "Coming from different cities in Brazil, the members of the group met one another in 2004 in Caraíva-Bahia, became friends, and—in a simple and unpretentious way—the band was formed." Along with Lora, the musicians are Fábio Luna on flute, cavaco and voice, Alex Souza on voice and 6-string guitar, Juninho Billy Joe on percussion and Alexandre Lora on pandeiro. Caraivana has released some half dozen albums to date, beginning with the self-produced Caraivana (2008) and including Caraivana Toca Gil (2021). The ensemble vibe is easygoing and their repertoire wide-ranging, with originals and popular favorites in samba, forró, choro and Brazilian popular music (MPB) idioms.

Those who have followed Douglas Lora's popular side are likely to be familiar with Irmãos Lora, his lifelong musical partnership with his talented brother Alexandre, who—in addition to being a crackerjack pandeirista—plays handpan and composes. There is also a longstanding duo on the classical side. Lora has been associated for over 25 years with guitarist João Luiz, as the esteemed Brasil Guitar Duo, performing new works and old, from their first release in 2007 (Bom Partido, CAG) to the Grammy-nominated Book of Signs with the Delaware Symphony (Naxos, 2018) to the Brasil Guitar Duo Plays Gismonti (Guitar Coop, 2023) and all between.

Luiz and Lora met as teenage guitar students in São Paulo, and have since performed in major concert halls across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America, appearing as soloists with major orchestras and collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, Paquito D'Rivera and other luminaries. Their partnership has expanded the repertoire for two guitars through Luiz's transcriptions and arrangements of classical works and Lora's original compositions. In their releases, works by Rameau, Bach, Scarlatti and Debussy appear back-to-back with those based on such Brazilian dance forms as choro, samba, maxixe and baião. Lora's compositions and arrangements have garnered praise as film soundtracks in Brazil and in performances by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, Trio Brasileiro, Quaternaglia, Camerata de Violões Projeto Guri and Orquestra Jovem Tom Jobim.

In 2023, after completing his doctoral degree at University of Southern California Thornton School of Music under Scott Tennant, Lora joined the longstanding Grammy-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, succeeding Tennant, who has retired from touring. Released in September 2024, Choro! (self-produced, 2024) is Lora's first solo album. The project flows from his many years of experience studying, performing and composing choro, as well as his doctoral work on the subject. The release notes contain this pithy statement of purpose: "This album is a synthesis of a multi-faceted musical expression, the result of many decades of experience and dedication to a vast spectrum of creative activities. Transiting with ease between the classical and popular music universes, the work intends to transcend the boundaries of artistic designations, combining the traditional choro music from Brazil with the aesthetic depth of the contemporary classical guitar repertoire. In these seven arrangements written for seven-string guitar, a new path is created to approach the richness of this repertoire." AAJ spoke with him to find out more about the work and his new path.

Classical v. popular choro performance

AAJ: Your new album project is so beautiful. And, you know, I did not realize that these were all written arrangements that you are playing. I'd like to see what the manuscript looks like. Maybe "Assanhado"?

DL: Sure. I can show you here on the screen. (To see Lora perform it, check YouTube, bottom of page.)

AAJ: Great. So let me look at this. Wow, several colors, several layers of score...

DL: It's not completely finished. At least in this case, I tried to put some of the fingerings, because there are so many ways that you can do the same phrase, but when I want a specific effect, you know, when you are using open strings or... But I am working on other projects as well, other compositions that I am publishing, so I could not time perfectly the end of these arrangements with the release of the album, so these will come maybe a week later or two weeks, but they will be available on my website.

AAJ: So, as I said, I wasn't aware that this was aimed at classical players, really. You mentioned in your statement that this was a "new path." So how much of this choro repertoire has been published for classical guitarists?

DL: Well, we have this tradition of guitar composers from Brazil since João Pernambuco, Villa-Lobos of course, guys from the beginning of the 20th century. We have a whole lineage of composers like that: Dilermando Reis, Canhoto da Paraiba, Garoto, Radamés Gnattali and Francisco Mengoni, Guarnieri—more classical—and then you have Paulo Bellinati, Marco Pereira and all those guys who are still working today.

But this repertoire represents a crossover with what is the Brazilian style—Brazilian choros, Brazilian sambas, Brazilian waltzes—which is played in the concert halls by guitarists from all around the world. So there is a kind of repertoire that is played in the rodas de choro there in Brazil, here in the United States or in Europe. But choro is also used as classical guitar repertoire in guitar recitals.

AAJ: I am used to seeing lead sheets, playing and seeing you play as an improviser, so I didn't realize you had all the layers and dots in your eyes as you were performing here. I read music well, but this is a different approach from what I'm familiar with in this idiom. I know you as an improvising choro player. So—as a reality check—how much improvisation is involved when you get together with Trio Brasileiro or with Anat? You're not just playing arrangements there; the head, yes, but...?

DL: The arrangements are kind of guidelines. They're open. There is always a lot of freedom within the arrangements. There are some spots where you know what you are going to do, where you're going to double the melody or where you're all going to do "that thing," you know, but it's mostly free and open. So there is a lot of room for improvisation in that situation.

Solo path

DL: But besides this popular side of my career, I also act in the classical guitar world, for many many years. I have the Brasil Guitar Duo, I play with the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet now. I have several recordings of complete works by classical composers, like Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Leo Brouwer. I have recorded orchestral CDs, premiering two concerti for two guitars and orchestra. So the classical background for me is super strong and has been forever, since I was 15 years old.

Now I'm developing my solo career in classical guitar, and the idea of this project is to combine everything that I've been doing for all these years. Since I've been playing for many years, and I've been always dedicated to chamber music or to groups—like Trio Brasileiro or Caraivana. I wanted to do something else now, in my solo career. But I didn't want to play the traditional repertoire for solo classical guitar, I wanted to bring all this baggage that I have with popular music and unite them. This is what I mean by a new path.

It might be a little bit presumptuous but it is new for me, in a way, that I take something like "Assanhado," a choro, for example. You have a lead sheet, mandolin on top of an accompaniment that is super elaborated as well. I wanted to condense all this information and transform it into a piece that would be challenging and complex. I don't do it for the complexity itself, but for the sounds that I hear in my head, that could be played—for example—in a guitar recital.

Seven choros for seven strings

DL: This is one of the projects of my doctoral degree. The idea that I had was to write seven choros for seven strings. That's the other part, too: the seven-string guitar doesn't have a significant repertoire dedicated to it. So I wanted to write for this new generation of guitar players that play the seven-string, and they are soloists. The tradition of the seven-string guitar—in Brazil—has been always as an accompaniment, at least until Raphael Rabello. Rabello was the guy who changed that direction. He became a soloist with nylon strings, seven-string guitar, and a lot of the music by Radamés Gnattali, for example, is written for him. So this is a continuation of that. But taking this repertoire that is played by choro regionais and transforming it into a concert-level guitar piece; I don't want to call it classical, but concert level.

So I did that with songs like "Assanhado," like "Rosa," like "Odeón" by Ernesto Nazaré. But I also did some different arrangements of pieces that were originally written for guitar. For example, "Se Ela Perguntar" by Dilermando Reis, his most famous waltz. And the nature of Reis' music is simple, beautiful, super inspired, but it's simple. So I wanted to do something a little more enriched with counterpoint, with accompaniment lines, so I did my own version of that piece, which was already written for guitar. For example, also "Desvairada" by Garoto, also a piece that is famously played on the guitar, but I did a completely different arrangement. I added parts—in both pieces, I added parts. I added, well, you can call it an improvised section, but it's a written improvisation. And different voices, changing the register of where you play the theme.

AAJ: That's a lot of work. So some of it you had done for your doctoral degree?

DL: Yes. All of the arrangements were part of this project. Since the beginning, I had this idea that I was going to work on these pieces with my teacher, record an album, and release the scores. So I'm happy that it's coming true, finally.

AAJ: So, for our jazz-oriented readers, how does what you are doing now and with this project relate to your more improvisatory music? I think of what you do with Anat Cohen, for example, as on the jazz side of choro, full of improvisation and freedom. You mention a classical rigor. Tell us more about that.

DL: The rigor is about the care, the attention and awareness, from tone production to articulation to making the voices clear; things we pay much more attention to as a classical player than as a popular or jazz player. So all these refinements on the interpretation, right? But with the language, because you don't want to play choro stiff with no swing as a classical player; you are meeting halfway. So there is a lot of improvisation, yes, when I play, but not on this record. This record, everything is thought out, I thought about it. In the process of creating the arrangements I allowed myself to improvise, but then, when I wrote, I established that this is what I'm going to do always when I play this piece. So the improvisation is super present in my creative process, all the time. And then, the preparation for the interpretation part is based more on a classical tradition.

Teaching

AAJ: How long have you been teaching at Cal State Fullerton?

DL: One year now, since August of 2023.

AAJ: I noticed that you are teaching and also coordinating the guitar program. So you're, as we say, the "chief cook and bottle washer"?

DL: Yes, I'm the only one there. But the guitar course there is super old. It started with David Grimes, and is very traditional, a lot of tradition. Several wonderful teachers have taught there. The position was held by Martha Masters before I came. She moved to Arizona and I was here, so it was perfect timing.

AAJ: So you are an assistant professor there?

DL: My official title is part time, because they don't have a full-time teacher for guitar for many years. That might change, but I'm a part-timer who works full time.

AAJ: That's what unions are for. I understand and hope that it might turn into a tenure track position soon. So how big is your studio?

DL: Right now we have about 12 students, divided between bachelors and masters. Most of them are guitar majors, just a few that are BA and composition. Super amazing students. I love teaching there. The whole faculty is super supportive, including the director of the school of music, Randall Goldberg, who is a guitarist himself. He's been wonderful and I think there is a lot of potential to grow in the program. And—Martha was doing this—we can use our connections to continue to invite world-renowned artists who are touring through California to come in to the university for the students. When there are high-level guest artists it creates a high level for the students as well. So it's rewarding, the program is great. I'm super happy there.

As Pequenas Manhãs (The Petit Mornings)

DL: So the other project that I just finished was a set of studies for solo guitar. I decided to put myself in a scientific creative experience. I decided to wake up every day for twelve days in a row. I set the dates, when I would start, when I would finish. Every day I woke up two hours before my day would start. That could mean four in the morning, or 4:30 in the morning; I was focused. Every day I would take my guitar, before breakfast, before anything, and I would improvise, grabbing the first idea that came to my mind, and writing a short study for guitar. That was the project.

One of the guidelines is that it had to be short; one minute, two minutes long, based on the first idea that I had in my mind. Some mornings I had the whole piece. I played, and in 40 minutes I got it. Some other mornings I would stay there for two hours and nothing, nothing. In the last 10 minutes I got an idea. I saved that idea, recorded it and left it for later, to work on, because I wanted to keep the process fresh; every day a new thing. So I had this library of ideas that I recorded.

And when I was done with this period, I came back to it and I wrote what I called As Pequenas Manhãs (The Petit Mornings), a series of 10 short studies (Las Casas Musica, 2024). I developed the ideas. And they are all based on improvisation. It could be a melodic idea, it could be a chord sequence with arpeggios, or it could be based on a technical aspect of the guitar. So I'm telling you that story to show you how improvisation is present in my compositional process.

AAJ: So how did you know when you were ready to capture the moment, when that moment was? You played for a while, then said, "This is it." What were your criteria?

DL: I can't classify my criteria, but I know it when I feel it, that this is a good thing. It's intuition. We are instruments. We play instruments and we are instruments. It's like a bridge. I believe that. So I believe I am serving as a channel for manifestations of the universe. Some things don't deserve the attention and some things are wonderful. It could be something simple. Like the number one was super simple. It starts like this (plays a phrase). So I said, "This is beautiful. I'm going to use that." So then, after this channeling intuitive state of mind, where you are just letting things pass through, you grab something based on your personal taste or intuition. And then I use my brain, my rational part, to develop it. That's basically a summary of my compositional process.

AAJ: So these were not exercises for technique only?

DL: Well you can grab something. Let me show you. I can grab something that is technical and try to make music out of it. For example, this is good for practicing slurs (plays), but let me do something with it.

AAJ: So it's some of everything. The discipline reminds me of Hermeto Pascoal's Calendario do Som...

DL: Yes, yes. It's an exercise. And I have to tell you that I was so grateful that I did that, and I started to do this again with other projects, other series of compositions, in the same way. You set some limits, some deadlines, set some processes. It's very important to be organized in sparing a time to do that, because otherwise you won't do it. You have to learn that piece for next week, you know, you prioritize things that are more immediate. So that writing is just a practice. Well, all the great composers know that much better than me. All I do here is a humble attempt to go into that direction.

AAJ: Well it's great. You have so much in your musical universe that it just seems to comes through all the time. Sometimes I hear you play and I think of Glenn Gould, because of the clarity of what you do. The contrapuntal mind, and the ability to make each line sing on its own.

DL: Well, thank you very much. He's a big influence on me. I love Glenn Gould's Bach and everything he plays.

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