In 1923 when the first great choro group, Os Batutas, which means the cool guys, went to Paris with Pixinguinha with the flute, it really had an enormous effect. People who talk only about American jazz in Paris don’t realize that the Brazilians got there first. 

 

In Europe, Pixinguinha heard American jazz which he began to mix with choro and samba. He later switched from flute to saxophone and learned two important lessons that would be repeated throughout the story of Brazilian music, the first that Brazilian and Western styles are constantly blending together, and the second that those who are thought to be too westernized are soon criticized in Brazil. 

 

By the time of his death in 1972, Pixinguinha had become one of the legends of Brazilian music, a player who pioneered Brazil’s links with jazz and guaranteed the popularity of choro thoughout the years when samba would be transformed by fashion and by politics.