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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZGISMONTI, Egberto(b 5 December 1947, Carmo, Brazil) Composer and multi-instrumentalist, equally proficient on guitars and keyboards, but also sitar, accordion, cello, all kinds of flutes, etc. He studied classical piano for many years, then orchestration and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. He plays all the Brazilian genres (choro, samba, baião, bossa nova) as well as jazz, combining them any way he likes while also exploring rhythms and modes from the rest of the world's music. He is uncategorizable, afraid neither to write beautiful tunes like 'Sonho' (recorded by Henry Mancini and many others) or to make startling juxtapositions that might put off the faint-hearted. His first album was a quartet set on MPS '70, and he eventually formed his own label, Carmo, for experimental recordings; but virtually all his albums have been on ECM since 1976. Solo albums included Solo (acoustic guitar, piano, voice, percussion) '79, Fantasia '82 (sound sampling used to create orchestra sounds) and Dança dos Escravos (guitars) '88. (A big composition on Fantasia was 'Infância'; a CD later on ECM was called Presents A Musical Childhood With Infância.) Duets with percussionist Nana Vasconcelos are Dança das Cabeças ('Dance of the Minds') '76 and Duas Vozes. Trem Caipira '85 combined piano and synthesizers; Sol do Meio Dia ('Noonday Sun') '77 with Ralph Towner, Jan Garbarek and others was influenced by the music of a shaman of the Yawalapiti tribe in the Amazon. Música de Sobre-Vivência is a quartet album with Brazilian musicians; Sanfona '80 has solo and quartet tracks with his own fusion group Academia de Danças. His collaborations with others included Folk Songs and Mágico, both with Garbarek and Charlie Haden. Zigzag on ECM has Gismonti on ten- and 14-string guitars, Nando Carneiro on six-string (and a discreet synth) and Zeca Assumpcao on bass; the music is delicate yet with plenty of attack, at times the three together like an enormous harp. Meeting Point '97 was a CD of orchestral music; then after a dozen years Saudações 2009 was a two-CD set. The first disc was again orchestral music, a piece called Sertões Veredas: Tributo à Miscigenação (Desert Paths: A Tribute to Miscegenation), recorded in 2006 in Havana by Zenaida Romeu, and presenting a kalaidoscope of Brazilian culture from choro to cinema music to Indian tribes. The second CD is even better, a collection of guitar duets with his son, Alexandre Gismonte, on original music, reverting to Egberto's basic original style, rich in lyrical harmony and absolutely unique. |