Celso Machado comes from a family of musicians.
He recalls being a young boy back in Brazil and getting caught playing one of his brothers’ guitars.
“I thought he was going to give me a hard time, but he looked very impressed,” says Machado, who now lives in Gibsons.
The guitarist, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and composer has put together a four-decade career and will be coming to Ladner this month for a solo concert.
While his website lists 2007’s Jogo da Vida as his last album, he’s been working on a new release and is planning to have it finished by spring. He’s recording on his own and doing his own mastering. He’s also been working on a new technique on the guitar, blending in sounds from the kora, a string instrument from Africa.
“I discovered I could reproduce some of the sounds of the kora on the guitar,” he says.
Machado says this will be his first concert of 2018 and that he’s excited to perform in Ladner.
“I’ve got a lot of new things I’m going to show to the audience.”
He “transports his audiences through the richness and diversity of Brazilian music and beyond,” his website notes.
He has won a Leo Award for Best Score for Documentary and a Canadian Folk Music Award for World Solo Artist of the Year, as well as receiving multiple Juno Award nominations.
Machado is also a member of BC World Music Collective, a project which came together in 2015 in order to perform at the Vancouver Island Music Festival.
He is set to play Genesis Theatre, 5005-45th Ave., Ladner, on Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $20 and available online at http://connect37.deltasd.bc.ca, by phone at 604-940-5550 or in person at 4750-57th St., Ladner.
