Egberto Gismonti - Solo (1979)

Artista: Egberto Gismonti

Álbum: Solo
Año: 1979
Género: Jazz Fusión / Latin Jazz
Duración: 53:00
Nacionalidad: Brasil

Lista de Temas:
1. Selva Amazonica/Pau Rolou
2. Ano Zero
3. Frevo
4. Salvador
5. Ciranda Nordestina

Alineación:
- Egberto Gismonti / 8-string guitar, piano, surdo, cooking bells, voice

Un disco no muy conocido del maestro Gismonti, y este es, justamente, un disco solista, otra vez bajo el prestigioso sello ECM, donde se nota la genialidad del músico brasilero como si fuese a capella pero en base a algunos de los instrumentos que toca y no con la voz.

Solo is a solo album by Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist Egberto Gismonti recorded in 1978 and released on the ECM label.

Egberto Gismonti en Soundstreams (Toronto, Canada, 2013)

Su mayor mérito es, en este caso, su sencillez y su honestidad. Hay notas como estas que se meten en uno y ya forman parte de nosotros por siempre, es como si respiráramos cada nota al oirlas: son pura combustión de alma y vida.

Featuring his popular composition "Frevo," Egberto Gismonti's Solo disc finds the great Brazilian guitarist ranging wide on a handful of stunning originals. Having already established himself as a composer in his native country and in Europe, Gismonti began to gain even wider notice with a series of topnotch ECM releases starting in 1977. His resumé includes work with such Brazilian heavyweights as Nana Vasconcelos (his longtime musical partner), Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim, as well as collaborations with jazz greats like Cal Tjader, Herbie Hancock, and Jan Gabarek. Here, Gismonti is just fine as he takes flight without any companions, treating listeners to a provocative and often meditative solo program.

Stephen Cook

A series of slower solo improvisations on various instruments -- piano, guitar, percussion -- highlighting not only Gismonti's virtuosity, but also an emotional depth that isn't always felt in his more ornate, orchestrated work. This is one of his richest and most measured albums... Definitely worth checking out!

Guide to brazilian music

The prolific output of Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti is only partially represented on ECM. Thankfully, what we do have on the label is among his most captivating work, and perhaps none more so than this adroit solo set from the late seventies. By the time he recorded Solo Gismonti had already honed his distinctions to a fine polish in smaller group settings, in particular with his longstanding partner, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos. Drawing from a wealth of inspirations ranging from Maurice Ravel and Django Reinhardt, Gismonti’s is an ever-morphing tapestry of melody and often modest virtuosity.
The sun rises on Solo through the 20-minute “Selva Amazonica, Pau Rolou,” by which Gismonti plants us into his fertile imagination. From that imagination we eventually depart with only the merest glimpses, despite the protracted track times. The opening suite is replete with resonant 8-string guitar and the floating charm of his wordless singing. Touches such as the latter add hints of remembrance, sealing a child’s proverbial innocence with an adult’s creative stamp. Across this steel-stringed landscape Gismonti imprints the tread of the surdo (a bass drum of African origin), then settles into a pre-dawn hymn against a wavering backdrop of cooking bells. A later track, “Salvador,” focuses these same energies into a single guitar, also tailed by a song to the skies. Two piano pieces along the way—“Ano Zero” and “Frevo”—showcase Gismonti’s melodic fragility in even more humbling terms. Through these, he works his augury by less persistent memories. The results fall barely shy of Keith Jarrett at his spirited best. Sunset arrives with the parabolic “Ciranda Nordestina.” After an introductory half-dream in bells, a gentle piano stains us with grand swaths of color, each an emotion in smoke. With every gemstone reaped from the earth, we pursue the rays of light passing through them to their cosmic ends.
As high as his group projects climb, I always prefer the earthiness of Gismonti alone. Perhaps the best place to start any musical journey is with a single guide at your side, and this role he seems more than willing to fulfill.

ECM Reviews

He plays with intensity, holding the audience in rapt attention and hardly daring to breathe until the release and applause at the end of each piece. He can be whimsical, humorous, explosive; and of course virtuosic...the music simply flows, engrossing and entrancing.

London Jazz News

Two great guitar innovators delivered a spellbinding double bill of twinkling harmonics, stomping chords and instrumental mastery.
Two great guitar innovators, the Brazilian Egberto Gismonti and the American Ralph Towner, each played solo on the Barbican's double-bill, but both artists are composers of widely interpreted original music, and it was the balance of instrumental mastery with memorable themes that made the show so spellbinding.
Towner opened the night with the classical acoustic guitar, on a theme of quick descending runs answered by snapping chords and delicate treble figures, followed by a feline ballad (Always By Your Side), and a funky blend of swaying melody and emphatic riffs on Jamaican Stopover. On the amplified 12-string, he can startlingly evoke the sound of the late Bill Evans's piano trios (a significant influence), and he played an engrossing dialogue of graceful melody and warm basslines on My Foolish Heart. An ardent Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, a dashing, obliquely swinging account of Miles Davis's Nardis, and an encore on the twinkling harmonics and whispering sounds of the tranquil Anthem were other highlights of a warmly greeted set.
If Towner's performance was an absorbing recital, Gismonti's was more like an onrush of capricious weather blowing through the hall. The Brazilian, ponytail tumbling from his trademark red headscarf, said not a word, but simply stirred fresh conjunctions of Ravelian harmonies, jazz and Brazilian choro music on his 10-string guitar and at the piano. Mestiço & Caboclo's ballad fragments and yelping chords, swerving themes jabbed at by growling bass notes, and welters of zither-chimes and soundbox-drumming drove a riveting guitar performance, but Gismonti's virtuosic piano set further broadened the soundscape and the mix of Brazilian and European influences. Infancia was a fusion of stomping chords and skippy treble melody, Fala an entranced ballad, and the famous Frevo a reminder of Gismonti's deep structural awareness, allied to his gift for entrancing melodies. A master technician, but also an unusually free spirit was at work – and play.

John Fordham

¿Qué mejor tendría para ofrecerles que la música de este genio moderno? Con ustedes, otro disco de Gismonti... y me pregunto... ¿será muy alocado tratar de conseguir la discografía completa de este hombre?