I received this link from a musician in Brasil thinking about learning the Irish flute.
http://www.youtube.com/cafeirlanda#p/a/u/0/SOsJxh9bDDk
ghastly!
There´s a bit of interest here alright, though there was never much Irish immigration in Brasil – unlike Argentina and Chile where a lot of Irish went. There is an interest in the pipes partly due to the piping tradition in Spain and Portugal - and also the whistle. Not sure how the whistle got going … probably the pipers had a hand in that… but it seems Tony Hinnigan in the Titanic film and even the Corrs had some effect too.
There are internet forums for pipes which include discussion of the uileann pipes and some forums for whistles but I haven´t come across anything for the conical keyless/8-key “Irish” flute yet. I did see someone trying to sell the Pakistani flutes a while back – including a “made in Ireland “ claim but haven’t seen any more of that since, thankfully.
Anyway, players of the Irish/Scottish music are few and far between as yet here with some sessions only in the biggest cities. Brazil has a rich flute-playing tradition of its own to be getting on with! I make keyless delrin flutes based on the Pratten and Rudall & Rose flutes as well as whistles and I´ll be putting them on sale via a website in Portuguese and English in the near future so maybe that will generate a bit more interest.
Garry
Sounds good to me, especially for an exo-session. And the whistler, Daniel Sinivirta, is a Chiffboard member: http://forums.chiffandfipple.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=13796
The bodhran player seems havily influenced by batucada/samba stuff !
Sounds interesting to me, nice things even though they’re not ITM “strictly speaking”
Hi!
I’m the whistle player of this band. We started to play togheter about 5 months ago, and no one of this band is descendent of Irish people. We learned to play ourselves (I learnd on videos on youtube), the violinist learnd classic music, and the uilleann piper lived 1 year on Ireland just to learn to play the uilleann pipe.The mandolim player started with brazilian traditional music (chorinho).
There are two videos that we mix irish music with brazilian music (also answering you, Doug):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOsJxh9bDDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl3I3p8mPAQ
Only in this pieces the bodhran players plays like brazilian music.
We are planning to play more mixtures of brazilian and Irish music like that, when we do, we gonna put it here.
Thanks for the comments, people 
And Doug, as soon as possible I’ll send you an e-mail
Greets!
Keep it up folks!
Arbo
Wow, this is synchronicity. Just within the last month, my wife and I moved to Brazil, and just within the last couple of days, I’ve become interested in Irish flute and was wondering if I’d have to pursue the interest all by myself here. What are the chances someone would have started this thread at almost the exact same time???
I used to play the fife when I was a kid. I haven’t touched it for the better part of 30 years, but can still play most of the old tunes by heart and I’d like to start playing it again. The problem is that we live in a city (Curitiba) and I don’t know of an easily accessible place to find the 3 mile clear zone you need to practice the fife. So, I was thinking about an instrument I could play indoors and I thought about the Irish flute. My understanding is that the fingerings are the same, so I can use what I already know and just learn a new instrument and music genre (true or not?). The real irony is that we just moved here from the UK where I could have had all the access to the music and people (and the pubs! Brazil is severely lacking in pubs!!) I could have asked for - it just hadn’t occurred to me then. 
Good to see there is some interest here in Brazil, even if it is about 800 km away. That means there might be some other people a bit closer. And to hear of a Brazilian flute tradition has just sparked my interest in exploring that as well.
I guess this post is just by way of introduction, but I’d be interested in finding some like-minded people in the Curitiba area to see what’s happening on the fluting front.
Pitts2112
…and was wondering if I’d have to pursue the interest all by myself here.
You may well have to! The interest here in the music has only gotten going relatively recently and it’s still sparse - I don’t have any direct contact with it as I live in a rural area but I look in on a couple of forums here (on Orkut) where there’s some talk of sessioning…Not sure about Curitiba…nice city though.
My understanding is that the fingerings are the same, so I can use what I already know and just learn a new instrument and music genre (true or not?).
Should be fine. Jemtheflute on this board makes a keyless piccolo (very good by all accounts) for a very reasonable price which might be a good way for you to start, coming from the fife. He has sold quite a few to people on the board and you can take a look in the archives - and plenty of other posters play fife too. It might get through the customs here without having to pay any duty but otherwise they’ll hit you up for 60%…
… (and the pubs! Brazil is severely lacking in pubs!!)
There should be some kind of “Irish pub” or “English pub” - most of the larger cities have them - and you could ask there about music. There’s also likely to be some English teachers in there who might know what you’re after.
Garry
Pitts, Curitiba is good city to find people who plays Irish Music in Brasil! I can remember 3 bands, Gaiteiros de Lume, Keltoi and Terra Celta (from a city close to curitiba).
Take a look:
http://www.myspace.com/grupokeltoi
http://www.myspace.com/terracelta
In great cities, you can easily find pubs, here on Rio I can remember at least 5 of them. São Paulo has a lot more.
Interestingly enough, I went down to a local music store/pawn shop today to feed this sudden insatiable interest in flutes, just to see what they had. Surprisingly, they had a wooden flute there which I took a look at. Now, my interest in these things is about a week old, so I only know what I’ve read here.
The instrument looked old but of indeterminate age, was black wood, and had no markings on it. The embouchure was kind of a squared oval. It was keyed, came in three pieces, had a tuning slide and a vernier cap in the head with a sort of dome-like shape to it. The foot had a metal end piece, as well, protecting the…ummm…what DO you call the end of a flute - a muzzle?. The cork on the tenons looked in good shape, possibly even new, but there was a little free play between the pieces - not quite a tight fit. The keys and rings had tarnished in a way that I think they were made of German Silver, not sterling. I played it and, considering my lips were last in shape about 30 years ago, I was able to get a full two octaves out of it, but can’t say with what kind of quality.
My guess was that it was probably one of the 19th cent German ones that gets talked about here. If the price was right, I might have taken it, knowing that I would have had a flute of questionable quality and playability, but it would have been fun for what it was. Except the shop owner wanted $590 for it!! Either it was a real gem and he knew what he had, or he has no idea of it’s true value but thinks because it’s old it’s better (that’s what the sales woman tried to tell me).
I didn’t buy it but which one of us was the sucker - the owner for being unrealistic in valuing it or me for not knowing something good when I see it?
Sergio Mendez in Argentina sent me this link to his previous band, “Kells”.
http://www.myspace.com/kellsmaskells
Not exactly Brazil, but not far away.
Some good stuff in there.
Thanx Doug.
It could have been Pakistani by that description. I can remember seeing a used flute in a music shop when I was passing through Curitiba…maybe last year…I didn’t look at it very closely but I remember thinking “Pakistani” rather than “old German”.
Garry
[ Thread revival - Mod ]
Hi there!
I’m very grateful for the people of this forum, I’ve learned a lot here and this was the way to buy my flutes and learn many things!
I want to show you guys the first recording of my band, with traditional Irish music and a Brazilian tune (‘Moleque na Feira’ is a set with Kid on the Mountains and the brazilian tune Feira de Mangaio):
http://www.myspace.com/cafeirlanda
We had not much time to record, so there are some things that we didn’t like, about rhythm, and I’m still newbie at the irish flute, but it’s ok.
Hope you guys like it
Best,
Daniel
It sounds good to me, Daniel. Keep up the good work.
Yes, Doug, we’re here!
Please, take a look at our myspace: www.myspace.com/nafianna
We’re Na Fianna, an ITM band based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m the flute and uilleann pipes player.
You can watch some videos on my YouTube account: http://www.youtube.com/user/IrishFlutist85
See ye!
daniel,
if i am in rio i will look you up, my woman is originally from there. i love the choro music, she introduced it to me. here is my first attempt on the wooden 6key flute -
carinhoso (please excuse the poor recording, done on my cell phone)
Your link just takes me to Box.net’s home page, rama …
[ I fixed the bad URL, Ben - MTGuru ]
thanks ben, i think i fixed the link, can you hear me now?