Egberto Gismonti

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Egberto Gismonti (1980)
Egberto Gismonti - Portrait by Gert Chesi, 80s

Egberto Gismonti (born December 5, 1947 in Carmo , State of Rio de Janeiro ) is a Brazilian musician. He is a composer , pianist , guitarist , accordionist or Sanfona player and flutist . His work is not set in any particular direction; he combines jazz and new music with Brazilian music.

Life

Gismonti was born the son of a Lebanese and a Sicilian. He comes from a musical family: his grandfather and uncle already directed orchestras. At the age of five, at the request of his parents, he began to learn to play the piano. He also played the flute, clarinet and guitar. He learned his skills on the various, also genuinely Brazilian types of guitars, such as the violão, on an autodidactic basis. After studying classical piano in Rio de Janeiro and Nova Friburgo for 15 years , he received a scholarship for classical music in Vienna, which he turned down in order to devote himself to popular music. In 1968 he published his composition O Sonho, which was interpreted by Os Três Morais. A little later he went to France and studied composition and orchestration at the Conservatoire de Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Jean Barraqué .

In the following years Gismonti wrote songs for Marie Laforêt . His first album Egberto Gismonti was influenced by the Bossa Nova in 1969 . It was only on the album Orfeo novo that he presented himself as an instrumentalist. Since 1973 he has played a special eight-string guitar, u. a. at recordings and concerts with Airto Moreira , Flora Purim , Herbie Hancock , Miles Davis , Paul Horn or Cal Tjader .

Gismonti was very successful on the international market: The album Dança das cabeças (“Dance of the Heads”), recorded together with the Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos , sold over 200,000 times. He performed at international festivals such as the Berlin Jazz Days or the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal and repeatedly toured not only with Vasconcelos and his own groups, but also with Jan Garbarek , Charlie Haden , Ralph Towner , Collin Walcott and L. Shankar .

He also worked with Elis Regina , Quincy Jones and Hermeto Pascoal , and later with Maria Bethânia , Marlui Miranda , Wagner Tiso and Yo-Yo Ma .

In order to have more freedom for his music, Gismonti founded his own record label Carmo in 1978 , which also makes a large part of his old productions available again, which initially only appeared in Brazil, France or Italy. He has also been recording for Manfred Eicher's label ECM since the mid-1970s . In 2006 he added the suite Sertoes Veredas with the Cuban Camerata Romeu to his recordings of orchestral works , at the same time he recorded duos Saudações with his son Alexandra .

Services

In his compositions, the multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti brings " folklore , modern chamber music and jazz to the denominator of a completely independent music". According to Martin Kunzler , he is "the modern successor of Heitor Villa-Lobos because of his creativity and originality ."

Awards

In 1977 Gismonti received the German Record Prize for Dança das cabeças, which was recognized as album of the year in the American magazine Stereo Review.

Discography

  • Egberto Gismonti (Elenco, 1969)
  • Sonho 70 (Polygram, 1970)
  • Janela De Ouro (1970)
  • Computador (1970)
  • Orfeo Novo (1971)
  • Água & Vinho (1972)
  • Arvore (1973)
  • Academia de Danças (Carmo, 1974)
  • Coraçoes Futuristas (1976)
  • Dança das Cabeças (ECM, 1977; with Naná Vasconcelos )
  • Carmo (1977)
  • Sol Do Meio Dia (ECM, 1978; with Ralph Towner , Collin Walcott , Naná Vasconcelos and Jan Garbarek )
  • No Caipira (Carmo, 1978)
  • Solo (ECM, 1979)
  • E. Gismonti & N. Vasconcelos & M. Smetak (1979)
  • Charlie Haden, Jan Garbarek & Egberto Gismonti Magico (ECM, 1979)
  • Circense (Carmo, 1980)
  • Frevo (EMI Odeon, 1980)
  • Jan Garbarek / Charlie Haden / Egberto Gismonti Folk Songs (ECM, 1981)
  • Em Familia (1981)
  • Sanfona (ECM, 1980/1981; solo or with Academia de danças (Mauro Senise, Zeca Assumpção , Nenê ))
  • Fantasia (1982)
  • Sonhos de Castro Alves (1982)
  • Cidade coraçao (1983)
  • Egberto Gismondi & Hermeto Pascoal (1983)
  • Works (compilation 1976–1981, ed. 1984)
  • Duo Gismonti / Vasconcelos Jazzbühne Berlin '84 (rec. 1984, ed. 1990)
  • Egberto Gismonti & Naná Vasconcelos Duas Vozes (ECM, 1985)
  • Trem Caipira (Carmo, 1985)
  • Alma (1986)
  • Feixe De Luz (1988)
  • Pagador De Promessas (1988)
  • Charlie Haden / Egberto Gismonti: In Montreal (rec. 1989, ed. 2001)
  • Dança dos Escravos (ECM, 1989)
  • Kuarup (1989)
  • Infância (ECM, 1990, with Jaques Morelenbaum and Nando Carneiro)
  • Amazônia (Carmo, 1991; film music)
  • El Viaje (1992, film music)
  • Casa das Andorinhas (1992)
  • Música de Sobrevivência (ECM, 1993)
  • Zigzag (ECM, 1995)
  • Meeting Point (ECM, rec. 1995, ed. 1997, with the Lithuanian State Symphony under Gintaras Rinkevicius)
  • Saudações - 2009 (ECM rec. 2006/2007, ed. 2009 with Camerata Romeu under Zenaida Romeu and Alexandre Gismonti)
  • Jan Garbarek / Egberto Gismonti / Charlie Haden Magico: Carta de Amor (ECM rec. 1981, ed. 2012, double CD)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He actually wanted to record the recordings in an all-star cast with Robertinho Silva , Luis Alves and Nivaldo Ornelas , but the military dictatorship prevented them from leaving Brazil, so he met Vasconcelos in Oslo. See Allmusic portrait.
  2. ↑ a b Kunzler, Jazzlexikon, p. 429
personal data
SURNAME Gismonti, Egberto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian musician
DATE OF BIRTH December 5, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Carmo , Rio de Janeiro