Celso Machado

…It seems pretty impossible to categorize Celso Machado’s music, since music is not his primary aim as a performer. His goal, first and foremost is to transport his audience through sound manipulation. It sounds a little heady, but the reality is he used a crazy amount of instruments, great and small, to communicate his love for Brazil and the music of the world.
As a guitarist he was dazzling, with fingertips dancing up and down the guitar neck effortlessly. It’s always a joy to watch musicians of this caliber simply play the hell out of their instrument. …
Aside from his guitar playing, he also brought the audience along on strange and engaging sound journeys. This started off simply with Celso tapping his water bottle (and tuning it by drinking the water), tapping on the microphone, tapping on his face, basically tapping on anything. These sound journeys culminated in an utterly virtuosic audience participation that recreated the sounds of a hot Brazilian night, complete with thunder and rain. The audience provided the rain with a sea of tongue clicks and knee patting, while Celso provided the thunder by blowing into the microphone. Sounds simple, and it was, but it transported us. Little wonder he got two standing ovations by the end of the night!
His encore was dazzling. Playing a guitar piece of his own composition, he progressively detuned the lowest guitar string while playing. When it was completely slack, he picked up a parade whistle and started the samba. He pulled the slack string across the other strings, strumming the dead strings with a convincing rattling samba beat, and pulled the loose string tight on the other side of the neck, loosening and slaking it to create bass lines. I’ve never seen anything like this electrifying performance.
- Hearth Music

Celso Machado at Portland Folk Festival
Oregon Music News
By Tom D’Antoni
August 21, 2010

It was one of those times when a performer is so spellbinding, surprising, riveting and spectacular that the audience reacts as one living, breathing entity, absorbing the deepest kind of musical pleasure/
That was Celso Machado at the SRO Alberta Rose Theatre on Saturday night as part of the Portland Folk Festival.
If there ever was one person who could be described as being music, it is the Brazilian Machado. He played guitar, ngoni, drums, flutes and assorted little instruments. At one point he walked over to a table filled with small wind instruments on the right side of the stage. He created a rainforest in the theatre… complete with bird calls, and a rainstorm with the sound of the rain provided by the audience clicking their fingers and slapping their legs.
He created animal sounds. He WAS the rainforest and the audience lived in it for a few moments. Most performers would have appeared silly even to attempt this. At the Alberta Rose, you could feel the rain.
Machado’s Brazilian tunes were as beautiful as they possibly could be. That’s saying something, I know, but I have heard the theme from Black Orpheus hundreds of times; hearing Machado play it on guitar and sing it was like hearing it for the first time. Similarly for a Gilbert Gil tune.
He isn’t a one-man-band, he’s a one-man symphony.
- Oregon Music News

Brazilian Ways with Guitar Plus Some Friendly Detours
The New York Guitar Seminar, Brazil and Beyond, at Mannes College of Music

...ceded the stage to Celso Machado, a Brazilian guitarist, composer, singer and percussionist whose music draws on the classical and avant-garde techniques, but veers well into the sounds and textures of Brazilian pop.
...Mr. Machado's set was inventive and unbuttoned, and included mostly his own works, including straightforward popular songs and somewhat more involved instrumental pieces. The highlight was his finale "Rainforest", in which he drummed on his own body (and persuaded the audience to do the same) and used rattles, whistles, electronic effects and an uncanny ability to imitate birds and animals, all in the service of evoking the supremely musical chaos of nature. - Allan Kozin

Jeux de séduction

Idéalement, la musique fait le travail toute seul. Un rien de charisme ne nuit pas non plus. Celso machdo, guitariste brésilien désormais installé à Vancouver, a mis au point une stratégie de séduction qui fait mouche, vendredi, à l'angle des boulevard Maisonneuve et de la rue Jeanne-Mance. S'accompagnant seul à la guitare, il a d'abord exécuté une jolie bossa nova, douce et rassurante. Déjà, le public était en confiance.
Après une samba bien menée, il a sorti son arme secrète: un joyeux sens du théâtre...très proche du cabotinage!
Plutôt que d'entreprendre une troisième chanson, il a commencé à se tapoter sur les joues, comme si elles étaient un instrument de percussion. Petit à petit, c'est tout son corps qui est devenu un curieux tambourin dont il tirait des rythmes et des timbres amusants. Avec force grimaces, bien sûr. Du coup, on avait le sentiment de se trouver à mi-chemin entre le Festival de jazz et Juste pour rire.
Celso machado sait ce qu'il fait. Jamais sa propension au jeu ne relègue au second plan sa grande musicalité. Son doigté est impressionnant et il sait doser ses effets. Après avoir fait rigoler le public, il n'a d'ailleurs eu aucun mal à le ramener en territoire bossa, en lui servant notamment Felicidade de Jobim. - Alexandre Vigneault

...There are few performers in the world today as versatile and fascinating as Machado. Whether he’s leading the audience in a call-and-response percussion number or performing a spry Bossa Nova rendition of the Xavier Cugat favourite Brazil, Machado’s performances are unerringly awe-inspiring.
Now that he’s been to Regina three times in the last year as a festival act, would it be asking too much to get Machado to come back soon for a full-length performance as part of the Regina Folk Guild’s Concert Series?
Judging from the standing ovation he received at the end of his all-too-brief set, I’m not the only one who would like to see more of him.

- Emmet Matheson

Musiques Du Monde
Brésil
Celso Machado: Jongo Le
daqui 332003 (HM)

R10 - coup de foudre
Son disque est une longue respiration, profonde, saine, claire, un hommage à toutes ses racines afro-américaines, un salut aux orishas, un trajet extrêmement musical à travers l’incroyable diversité brésilienne, mais le tout avec une unité de gout et de simplicité qui force l’admiration. Guitare, percussions et voix suffisent largement à dessiner ce Brésil chatoyant. Point n’est besoin de ces surcharges de production que nous imposent tant de producteurs et de musiciens aujourd’hui.
Machado a beaucoup voyagé, il a appris d’autres musiques, rencontré d’autres musiciens, il a connu d’autres émerveillements, mais il en revient à ses racines sans volonté d’autres métissages que ceux qu’elles expriment déjà depuis si longtemps. Les seuls détours qu’il s’offre sont un salut aux Gnawa d’Afrique du Nord et quelques pièces jouées en dialogue entre sa guitare et le luth pipa de la Chinoise Qiu Xia He, un dialogue de cordes qui s’en vient irriguer des genres comme le baiao ou le frevo du Brésil.
Au total, un disque juste, précis, musical, un disque où l’on découvre un très grand guitariste et chanteur qui nous livre le Brésil multiple sans concessions inutiles mais avec une passion brulante.
- Etienne Bours

Les Cahiers de la Guitare l’avaient announcé, la soirée fut pétillante de rythmes et de timbres. Dans le cadre du 12ème Guitar Master organisé au Café Littéraire de la Maroquinerie ( Paris 20ème), le public est venu honorer le passage trop rare en France du guitariste brésilien Celso MACHADO.
On parle communément de ses partitions et CDs, en revanche, moins de ce génie inventif qui fait de lui un véritable homme-orchestre et du frissson qui se dégage à l’entendre, tant le ton donné aux sambas, bossa et autres baiões rappelle les accents doux mais énergisants d’un João Gilberto ou d’un João Bosco. Sa musique est extrêmement créative : ni Xucalo ni Cuenca sur scène pour accompagner son chant et sa guitare, mais des techniques guturales et buccales pour rendre ce qui est généralement joué à deux ou trois musiciens ( comme dans O Varal ou Depois de anos...). De son corps entier et de son entourage ( micro, chaise, pied de micro, sol...) jaillissent des expressions de contrebasse, de guimbarde, de bruits de forêt.. qui nous entraînent dans un pseudo état de transe raisonnée...
Il faut dire que l’univers de Machado n’est pas seulement celui de son pays: il nous transporte a vontade d’un membranophone de sud de l’Inde à une flute amérindienne ou à un cordophone - et idiophone - utilisé au Maroc ... Le public se passionne pour ses ouvertures, reproduit l’intonation ou les rythmes de ses phrases, claque des doigts, chante: les instincts se délient.
Et fin du fin, comme on l’attendait depuis qu’on avait aperçu Cristina Azuma dans la salle, la guitariste le rejoint pour donner deux extraits de leur CD enregistré voici quatre ans (voir les Cahiers no 71 p.53) et pour jouer d’une même corde... On espère d’ailleurs que la thèse qu’elle achève sur les danses baroques nous rendra bientôt la concertiste.
Machado est une école de samba à lui tout seul. Tout prochain passage du côté de chez vous nécessite un détour.
- Caroline Kutter

Lawrence B. Johnson / special to The Detroit News
"...the theme here was the brew of styles that bubble up when one talks about the guitar in Brazil. That meant New York City transplant Romero Lubambo riffing with the Assads and (more convincingly) getting down with Celso Machado, a one man compendium of Brazilian diversity who doubles as a guitarist and percussionist par excellence.
Reminiscent of Bobby McFerrin, the multi-talented Machado finds an orchestra-full of ways to use his voice and makes percussion instruments of his entire body: cheeks, mouth, chest, hands and legs - not to mention the various parts of the microphone stand. Yet Machado also showed serious chops as a guitar player with an intricate, high speed solo in which he constantly altered the instruments tuning in mid-flight.
Also worked into this Brazilian stew was the Assad's younger sister Badi ( pronounced BAH-jee), who plays guitar, sings and, like Machado, creates a whole percussion section with her mouth. One of the evening's most intriguing episodes was an extended percussion duet by Badi Assad and Machado in which they mimicked the cries of circling birds and even got the audience involved in their schtick. ..."

- Detroit News

2008 - Le PRIX MMM/ÉTOILES GALAXIE de Radio-Canada a été décerné à Celso Machado (Vancouver) dans le cadre du 18e Festival MMM - Des Musiques ET du Monde. Galaxie, le réseau de musique continue de Radio-Canada, innove en matière de développement et de promotion des nouveaux artistes d’ici. Ce programme récompense le talent d’un créateur dont la proposition artistique repose sur la qualité, l’audace et l’originalité.
CELSO MACHADO (Révélation pour l’est du pays)
Compositeur, guitariste virtuose, percussionniste et musicien prolifique, Celso Machado est une école de samba brésilienne à lui seul. Sa contagieuse joie de vivre font de lui un excellent communicateur d’autant plus qu’il s’exprime en cinq langues; français, anglais, portugais, espagnol et italien. Assister à l’un de ses spectacles, c’est s’imprégner de l’esprit et de la richesse musicale du Brésil avec la diversité des styles; samba, chôro, baião, frêvo, qu’il conjugue avec finesse aux beautés musicales de toute la planète. Reconnu dans l’ouest du pays mais méconnu de l’est, Celso Machado compte plusieurs albums solo, dont Jogo da vida, son plus récent, paru en juillet 2007.


- Press release Festival Musique Multi-Montreal

Celso Machado took rhythm so far it eventually moved off the guitar altogether. He started out by doing mouth percussion while he was playing (everyone was looking all around for the invisible percussionist with the soft shaker) and ended up doing a kind of Roland Kirk virtuoso performance, simultaneously playing two different tropical birds and a thunderstorm.
To do all these things at once demands amazing skills—skills that combine elements that in the U.S. are rarely found in the same band, let alone the same musician.

For full article - which is really interesting see -www.newyorkguitarfestival.org/cgi/show.cgi?db=content&uid=default&view_records=1&ID=254&Group=archive&mh=1 - Tim Brooks, www.newyorkguitarfestival.org

" My most recent musical discovery took place in a hotel-room showcase at the National Folk Alliance Conference in Toronto," says RED House Records' Bob Feldman "Celso Machado is a Brazilian musician living in Vancouver presently. I sat right in front of him as he mesmerized a roomful of people with his guitar and virtually his entire body. I had never witnessed so much music in another human being. At the end of his 45-minute set, the energy in the room was incredible. People literally jumped up from their seats shouting and clapping, crying and laughing. It felt like an once-in-a-lifetime experience. I was high from that for a year." - www.citypages.com, Jim Walsh, Sept 17, 2003

" Celso Machado is an extraordinary musician... Danças Populares Brasileiras are Machado's original pieces, written as an apotheosis to popular dances, completely preserving and 'polishing' to perfection the original dance movements with the passion and true musicality of a composer with God-given talent.” …"It is not an overstatement to say that Machado's Danças Populares Brasilieras, both for the folklore inspiration and masterly craftsmanship, can be compared with and equated to Brahms's Hungarian Dances and Dvoráks Slavonic Dances." - Liner notes for the 2005 Zagreb Guitar Quartet CD “Da fuga a milonga”