Machado

Celso Machado was born into a home life he describes as one of constant jam sessions. He's one of five musical brothers from the Brazilian town of Ribeirao Preto. Dad played guitar, Mom danced rhythm and the boys grabbed-whatever. Celso was born in 1953 and began playing in batucadas (walking street bands) at the age of seven. Since then, he's grown into a one-person orchestra, performing on a variety of stringed and percussion instruments. Strange, exotic instruments also inhabit his Vancouver home-from the cavaquinho (a kind of Portuguese ukele) to the two-stringed dutar from Kazakhstan and the Moroccan sentir (a cross between a banjo and a lute, with a camel-skin sounding board and three strings of camel gut). Celso's collection of instruments reflects the diversity of his repertoire. He's a solo performer known as a virtuoso guitarist, and he explores the music of numerous continents, through Italy to Egypt and Brazil.

  -- SA