In the past few months we have shared with our readers interviews with two Brazilian blues musicians. Last summer I visited with Igor Prado and more recently with Joe Marhofer of The Headcutters. Both these men and their ensembles play very different styles of blues music. What they have in common is a dedication, work ethic and reverence of blues music that should serve as an inspiration to blues musicians everywhere.

The Igor Prado Band and The Headcutters have something else in common. They both have CDs that are on the Chico Blues Records label. This modest enterprise is the domain of the man known as Chico Blues.

Chico’s story is very reminiscent of other blues impresarios whose quest for sharing this music is more than just a hobby, a business or even a passion. It is an obsession. Chico has an all consuming desire to share the joy that this music has brought to him with the world. He is dedicated to making sure people hear blues music in his native Brazil. He is also dedicated to sharing the blues music around the world that is being made in his homeland.

Chico is part of an international movement that American musicians have been aware of for some time, yet has largely been ignored by the blues community at large in the birthplace of the blues, the United States. Like many of us, the blues bug bit Chico at some point, and at that moment for better or for worse we knew our lives would never be quite the same.

In a massive nation of cultural and musical diversity, the voices from another continent and from another time reached out and spoke to Chico. The rhythms and feelings that this music emotes got inside his soul and he became Chico Blues.  

I caught up with Chico a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy a conversation I had with the founder and president of Chico Blues Records out of Sao Paulo, Brazil.  

David Mac (DM): Where are you from, Chico?

Chico Blues (CB): I am from a small rural village in the state of Paraíba. It is in the northeast part of Brazil. I was raised on a farm where we planted and picked cotton.

DM: How did you first come to be interested in music?

CB: I always listened to music. When I was a child I would listen to my father’s tiny radio. I got interested in different music styles. At that time, I liked very much a Brazilian accordion player called Luiz Gonzaga. He played forró, which is a regional music style from the northern towns of Brazil. I didn’t hear much else until I moved to downtown São Paulo, where I still live.

DM: How did you come to discover American blues music?

CB: Like most children, when I arrived in São Paulo forty two years ago, I started to get interested in rock music, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin that kind of thing. As I matured I got done with rock and went looking for other musical styles. Then I found the jazz music. I listened for many years and through the jazz I discovered blues.

DM: Do you remember the first blues recordings you heard and how you found them?

CB: Initially in Brazil we had very few blues records. It was very difficult to find any material. One day however I was looking around an imported disc store. I found three LPs called, “Chicago: The Blues Today, Volumes 1, 2 & 3”, from the Vanguard label. I bought them and fell deeply in love that day. The blues came like a “vein virus” into me. From that moment forward, I got immersed in a never ending search for the blues music.

DM: Who were some of the names of the blues musicians that you first heard on those records that inspired this never ending search you mentioned?

CB: Junior Wells, Otis Rush, J.B. Hutto, Otis Spann and James Cotton among others.

DM: Do you play any musical instruments yourself?

CB: No I don’t. I am just a very good listener. I believe that I am just a good listener, because I look after the feelings in the blues and not only the technical issues such as tuning and mistakes. This is important but to me not as important as the feeling the music gives me.

DM: Did you find others in Sao Paulo that shared your interest in this music?

CB: When I first started listening to the blues, very few people knew of this music in Brazil. In the 1980’s we had our first Blues Festivals here. These festivals created a boom in this music and soon there was a considerable increase in interest in it. These festivals provided the opportunity and the privilege to get to meet some of my heroes, including Junior Wells and James Cotton.

DM: How has the scene changed in recent years?

CB: Today we have fewer festivals than some years ago. As you know, Igor Prado is a great guitarist and producer. He is bringing many artists from America down to Brazil to record with him. For this reason we are reviving the blues audience in Brazil. After they make a record together, often tours will follow. By the way, The Igor Prado Bands’ most recent album, Blues and Soul Sessions was named, Record of the Year in the United States.

DM: (laughs) I read about that somewhere. How and why did you start Chico Blues Records?

CB: I was a factory worker for thirty years at a Volkswagen plant here in Brazil. I would spend half of my salary on blues LPs and CDs. Around 2003 many record labels closed their doors because of the free music boom with the internet. Of the labels that did survive, they eliminated blues artists from their roster. At this moment as a blues passionate person, I realized that many incredible and good records would not be launched or even recorded by the labels because of this market setback. So I had the idea to start a Brazilian label. I wanted to encourage local artists to go forward and revive an interest in the blues in Brazil.

DM: What was the first record you ever put out on Chico Blues Records?

CB: It was the first album by Igor simply called, The Prado Blues Band. On this record he shares the vocals with the harmonica player Ivan Marcio. Ivan has two other solo albums on the label as well. We followed up with CDs from harmonica player Robson Fernandes and The Big Chico Blues Band. This sometimes confuses people. Big Chico is a harmonica player and singer. We have the same name but are different people.

DM: How many artists do you have on your roster?

CB: Presently we have twelve artists on the label.

DM: How many titles in your catalog?

CB: We have put out twenty seven albums.

DM: Who distributes your product outside of Brazil?

CB: Currently Chico Blues Records has three places which distribute the CDs outside of Brazil. The Bear Family Record Store, in Germany, The DWM Music Company in Iowa City, United States and of course Bluebeat Music in Santa Cruz, California, United States.

In Brazil and Latin countries the distribution goes into live shows, small shops and bookstores as well as by deliveries via local mail, which I personally handle.

DM: What are you working on now?

CB: I have four projects I am working on at the moment. First off I am working with a new Big Chico CD, which aims to be a more refined production and very different from his first two albums.

The other three projects I am working on with my partner Igor. Two of these projects are instrumental albums. One of them is with Ari Borger who is a great Brazilian blues pianist and the other album with the saxophone player Denilson Martins.

DM: I have heard great things about Denilson.

CB: He is the greatest saxophonist in Brazil. These two albums will have some very special guests such as the American saxophone player Mr. Sax Gordon and the incredible American guitarist, Mr. Junior Watson.

The fourth project is with a talented American singer who now lives in Brazil, Mr. J. J. Jackson. All of these above mentioned albums, with the exception of the Big Chico CD, the artists are playing with The Igor Prado Band.

DM: What are your goals for Chico Blues Records?

CB: The plans are always to develop and expand the label because the Blues can’t stop.

DM: What would you like people to know about you?

CB: I would like the people to know only one thought. For me the blues, it is my fuel and keeps me alive and happy.