Paulinho da Viola Paulinho da Viola

by Alvaro Neder Paulinho da Viola was born in a musical environment. His father, the acoustic guitar player (violonista) César Faria, worked in the renowned choro group Época de Ouro, whose leader was the legendary Jacó do Bandolim. Those grave gentlemen — chorões, that is, preservers of the long tradition of choro — appeared at Farias house every week, and Jacó, with his baritone tone, always demanded complete silence for their rehearsals. Little Paulinho da Viola grew up listening to those wonderful sounds, a true part of history of Brazil, and these situations of identification formed his character for his whole life. Always a combative supporter of true, native samba and choro, he never gave up his ideals to meet commercial success. Unexpectedly, this formula of sincerity worked well, and even if he never had any problems selling out the entire printing of his records, he beat his own standard with 1996s Bebadosamba, which brought him his first gold record, with 100,000 records sold; a great feat for completely anti-commercial, pure samba-of-the-hills music.