after work, these men would often gather in the city's biroscas, the brazilian version of taverns, in the neighborhood of cidade nova - here, they would hold impromptu musical ensembles put their amateur musical skills to use.

in those days, a choro band required a flute for the solos, a guitar as the bass source, and the cavaquinho as a rhythmic binder - by mid twentieth century, choro had grown in popularity and could be heard at many dance parties and saloons in carioca high society.  this began asserting the status of choro as an important musical genre in its own right.