Egberto Gismonti - Selected Recordings (Rarum XI) (2004)

Hacía tiempo que no lo traíamos al blog, aquí traemos una compilación de temas donde la protagonista es la innovadora guitarra de Gismonti, pero tambiés está su piano y su flauta. Lírismo, melancolía, vanguardia y virtuosismo son palabras que expresan una fracción de la belleza que hay en lo que hace este genio de la actualidad que merece estar junto con los grandes de la música universal de todos los tiempos. El video de abajo no tiene nada que ver con el CD... pero... ¿A quien carajos le importa? siempre es un deleite poder ver al maestro extraterrestre en acción.

Artista: Egberto Gismonti

Álbum: Selected Recordings (Rarum XI)
Año: 2004
Género: Jazz fusión / Latin jazz / Jazz contemporáneo
Duración: 74:22
Nacionalidad: Brasil

Lista de Temas:
1. Ensaio de escola da samba (Danca dos Escravos)
2. Kalimba Lua Cheia
3. Cavaquinho
4. Bianca
5. Danca No. 1
6. 10 Anos
7. Lundu
8. Frevo
9. Selva amazonica / Pau rolou

Alineación:
- Egberto Gismonti guitars, piano, flutes, wood flutes, kalimba, surdo, voice, cooking bells
Nando Carneiro / guitar
Zeca Assumpcao / doubel-bass
Jacques Morelenbaum / cello
Nana Vasconcelos / percussion, berimbau
Mauro Senise / alto saxophone
Nene / drums
Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra
Gintaras Rinkevicius (conductor)

El virtuoso brasileño es un fenómeno y su versatilidad como músico y como compositor sin duda está muy bien ilustrado en esta hermosa compilación.
La música de la multi-instrumentista brasileño Egberto Gismonti siempre ha sobresalido en la diversidad, fascinado por la música popular brasileña, por los ritmos africanos, por la experimentación, no sólo es un gran pianista, también le gusta disfrutar de todo tipo de tipos de flautas. Pero es sobre todo su excepcional dominio de la guitarra que ahora dio gran fama. Desarrolló su propio estilo, en el que interpreta las líneas de contrapunto con las dos manos. Esta es una compilación del sello ECM al gran músico / compositor Egberto Gismonti. Nueve composiciones que van de temas en solitario a otros acompañado de su grupo o las obras orquestales, que muestran el maestro en todas sus facetas.
Rasgueando sin cesar y continuamente crea una paleta de sonidos que es una reminiscencia de la música de Steve Reich. Un clímax dramático que comienza desde el primer tema, con grandes cambios en los colores dinámicos de cada uno de los temas gracias a la composición que se expande suavemente. Sonidos brasileros, africanos, universales, música del mundo, clásica contemporánea o quién sabe qué más, basta con disfrutar de la consecuencia lógica, con sonidos de voz son simplemente impresionantes. La combinación del cello y contrabajo revestido con las notas de la guitarra hace a veces un verdadero drama. Los ritmos complejos que usan algunas melodías son muy especiales, aunque también tiene algunas composiciones más tradicionales. La combinación de excelentes solos, algunas (pocas) melodías pegadizas, pasajes finos y exquisita interacción entre los músicos es también algo para recalcar y de que resulta un disco extremadamente eficiente.

La música de Egberto Gismonti lo merece, merece que le prestes atención y la disfrutes. Aunque te cueste que sus sonidos no queden atrapados en ningún estilo, pero su mùsica es una visita obligada en todos los sentidos!

The complexity of Brazil, its interweaving of cultures, finds its echo in the music of Egberto Gismonti who draws on resources both “sophisticated” and “primitive”- from European classical music to the samba school to the music of the Xingu Indians and the sounds of the rainforest, from folk musics, from jazz. Highly trained as a pianist, Gismonti adapted pianistic technique in innovative manner on his customised 8- and 10- and 14-string guitars. It is his guitar artistry which is at the forefront of his :rarum collection.
Egberto Gismonti's volume in the excellent ECM Rarum series contains material from seven of his ten albums for the label as a leader, none from the 124 recordings on his own label distributed by ECM. It hardly matters. Gismonti is the most enigmatic and mercurial of the artists on the roster. Being from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, he has made a life of delving deep into his country's magical musical framework that draws into itself and expands upon the many cultures that have intersected with it from Africa, Europe, and the United States. The music contained here finds Gismonti, ever the shamanistic gadfly conjurer, singing and playing no less than eight instruments, from percussion to guitars to flutes. The settings range from the stunning solo guitar of "Cavaquinho," where classical and Indian notions dovetail one another, to more conventional quartets such as the one found on "Ensaio de Escola de Samba" with another guitar, cello, and double bass, or the string players on "10 Anos," which features his piano playing in a jazz quartet with saxophone. And then there is "Frevo," a work that reflects not only Gismonti's knowledge and frenetic approach to counterpoint as it manifests itself in Brazilian and European classical music, but the frenzy of Carnaval as it engages his pianism to a symphony orchestra. These selections are sequenced nearly perfectly and offer a radiant and ambitious portrait of one of the most revered and misunderstood musicians ECM has ever recorded.

Thom Jurek

Born in Carmo, a small town near Rio de Janeiro, Gismonti was a late starter on guitar, first picking it up at twenty-one, after having already played piano for sixteen years. He soon became known for his distinctively customised guitars, incrementally taking their string-count up to eight, ten or even fourteen. He's always been receptive to both European and African influences, and the way that they pervade Brazilian music.
This compilation heralds the second wave of ECM's :rarum series, with tracks chosen by the individual artists, not only from their solo output, but often adding collaborative work as sidemen to other artists on the same label. The musicians also provide sleeve notes and privileged access to their personal photo archives. Gismonti has chosen cuts recorded between 1977 and 1995.
The opening "Ensaio de Escola de Samba" is like a compacted symphony. Gismonti and Nando Carneiro's guitars repeat in a Steve Reich lattice, cascading traceries ebbing and flowing. Eventually, they break out into fleet strumming, alternating with Jacques Morelenbaum's sour cello slides. On "Kalimba", Gismonti plays that selfsame African thumb piano, as well as trilling on wooden flute, with Nana Vasconcelos lightly striking his single-stringed berimbau.
"Cavaquinho" shows off Gismonti's solo guitar side, using a broad palette of stinging lead lines allied to resonant chordal flourishes. Egberto is deliberately revealing the many sonic facets of his ECM work. "Bianca" is an extremely catchy tune, with Vasconcelos' splashing raindrop claps, whilst the duo works wordless vocals into the field.
"Danca No.1" revolves around jagged stops and trebly strikes, its extreme dynamism flying from banjo to harp sounds. The appearance of a full drumkit on "10 Anos" is quite shocking, as is the alto saxophone of Mauro Senise, but the most brutal contrast comes with "Frevo", as the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra weighs in behind Gismonti's breathtaking solo piano. The closing "Selva Amazonica" is a twenty minute guitar odyssey that ends up with Egberto scraping and ringing small bells, his mournful voice calling into the distance. This set's greatest strength is its sheer variety of settings for Gismonti's guitar magic...

Martin Longley

From the mid-‘70s to the mid-‘80s, the intersection of jazz and classical with synthesizers and acoustic instruments yielded a new genre and some intriguing recordings. Creating a sound appositely called “adult contemporary”, highlighted by releases on ECM Records and Windham Hill Records, and artists such as Michael Mahnring and David Darling, the genre then fell into a swath of synths and downright boring new age melodies. Various bluegrass artists, such as Darol Anger and Mike Marshall with their band Montreaux, began to use their bluegrass background as a way to enter into Copeland inspired territory.
In general, most of this didn’t work, didn’t make much of an impact. Well, sometimes it did, but by the time Marshall and Anger were in their Windham Hill heyday, the sound had become the Muzak for the NPR set. Like the jazz-fusion movement of the 1970s, the notion started out strong and invigorating with a decent precept. But eventually the sound becomes undermined and diluted, leaving only the base elements, crafting a saccharine listening experience and an exemplary soundtrack for the rubbing of emollient into your back.
To hear Egberto Gismonti, the brilliant Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, and his Rarum XI: Selected Recordings, consisting of various recordings from 1977 to 1995, is to grab a glimpse of the beginning of the adult contemporary movement. Gismonti reveals an ability to take a simple melody, such as the African influenced track “Kalimba” and embellish with dynamic changes. He doesn’t wash over the changes, but accentuates their depth through what can only be termed crescendos despite being a study in hushed subtlety; drifting in a dreamlike way with equally brilliant guitarist Nando Carneiro awaking him. All before such an approach became clichéd in the world of Windham Hill.
Part of the reason for this sound can be attributed to Gismonti’s custom 10-string guitar, which allows him to employ a hammer laden two-hand technique to create a quiet piano undercurrent to his music. Somewhat similar to Michael Hedges, but with more facility and less of the over the top pyrotechnics. It makes the mellifluous melodies, as on the slow Brazilian samba of “Cavaquinho”, pulse and sway before launching into a fusillade of frantic, almost Al DiMeola strumming.
The other more conspicuous reason for Gismonti’s sound is his background. Growing up in Brazil, Gismonti was a child prodigy, endowed with technical panache and a keen sense of timing. At 23, he ventured to Paris to study under Jean Barraque, one of Webern’s best students and a strong proponent of the 12-tone style. Upon returning to Brazil, Gismonti lived in the Amazon and began to examine the strong correlation between Brazilian and African music.
The opening “Ensaio de Escola de Samba” has all of these qualities inherently rotating underneath the framework. A minimalist 12-tone spirit operates at the structural level, supplying the composition’s simplicity and at times dissonant rotations. Notes don’t break but travel via liminal folkisms, with only the continual tempo gestations to create almost suites. All intensified by the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra or Jacques Marelenbaum’s growling cello. Yet these same passages recall Brazilian choro and traditional West African concepts—what became the blues in their crying and moribund teetering between ethereal joy and mundane incomprehensible sorrow.
Which doesn’t mean the entire Rarum XI: Selected Recordings release avoids all of the adult contemporary pitfalls. Even at its best, Gismonti’s music and work has this calmness which translates into an ineffable sterility like a white walled laboratory built in the middle of a sprawling rainforest. It lacks some of the extemporaneous elements of David Darling’s and Keith Jarrett’s work, matching the trees and their madcap meandering, both of whom Gismonti seems to emulate at times with his compositions such as the surfeit 20-minute “Salva Amazonica”. In retrospect that would be much like even the best the adult contemporary movement could muster, of being so close to something moving only to have an air of academia impeding it.

Christopher Orman

Along with eleven others, ECM's Rarum Series has recently chosen to visit the works of the Brazilian musician/composer/ethno-musicologist Egberto Gismonti. After 27 years of recording for this label, Gismonti remains a quixotic and innovative contributor to his countrymen and a worldwide audience.
Originally trained as a pianist, he adapted keyboard techniques for his customized 8, 10 and 14 string guitars and began his studies of the primitive music of the Amazon Indian tribes. After several years of establishing a musical career in Brazil, Gismonti received an invitation from Manfred Eicher, head of ECM, which resulted in his first recording in the mid 1970s. To date, Egberto Gismonti has recorded eleven ECM sessions as a leader and numerous others as a participating musician.
The music that Gismonti has chosen to represent his ECM years is presented in a wide range of formats. We get to listen to him on solo guitar on "Lundu(azul)" as well as "Cavaquinho." Gismonti plays piano with the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra on "Frevo." On the traditional Brazilian song "Pau Roulou" (the only non-Gismonti composition), he plays guitar, surdo, and cooking bells, and sings. On two selections, "Kalimba" and "Bianca," he duets with percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and the the combination of the intertwined instruments with Gismonti's voice is delicious. Finally, he appears in several quartet settings with either a second guitar or alto sax plus the cello of Jacques Morelenbaum, now considered the premiere interpreter of Jobim.
The music of Egberto Gismonti is truly unique in the melding of primitive native musical form, as well as sophisticated classical training that has been greatly influenced by Brazilian composer Heiter Villa-Lobos. There is nothing in his music that the general public would associate with a typical Brazilian presentation. In fact, during his initial years with ECM, Gismonti's music won great popularity and success with labels of it being considered pop, classical or world music depending upon the part of the globe that the album was being marketed in.

Michael P. Gladstone