[Leo Brouwer; El caminante, Odair Assad, GHA Records (2010)]
Famed classical guitarist Odair Assad's first solo recording is El caminante, named for the work Leo Brouwer composed for him, Sonata del caminante:
“After more than forty years of musical symbiosis and of sharing the stage with his brother Sergio, Odair Assad records his first solo album! New compositions follow one another, written by Leo Brouwer, Egberto Gismonti, Sergio Assad, Kevin Callahan and Roland Dyens. Discover them now on GHA’s web site http://www.gharecords.com/ A big step for the soloist, a big step for the guitar!
“It all began with a gift: Fá offered me a sonata! This fifteen minute present, flooded from Leo Brouwer’s pen, provoked a singular revolution in my life. More than forty years of musical symbiosis and of stage shared with my brother Sérgio got me used to always feeling, on my left side, a presence that I didn’t need to look at for my universe to merge with his. Obviously my sonata would need company and space to communicate; time took care of it with the partnership of persons dear to my heart and important in my life: Sergio, my partner for ever, Egberto, the genius, Roland, the Brazilian who was not born in Brazil and Kevin, my best friend. The result is this album whose existence is, for me, still hard to believe in…
Odair Assad
“Sonata del caminante was composed in a few days, at once for Odair Assad. Composition is a birth with its pain, its effort and its joy but, in this case, everything was organic. Thinking and doing were one and the same. An impossible challenge for any guitar virtuoso is something common for Odair. This contributed to the fluidity of the sound in the Sonata. The Sertão and the great forest intersect in waterfalls of sounds distant and static, calmed like the plain. Thematically you won’t find in the Sonata del caminante sweet melodies nor gracious batucadas; if I intended something, it was 'intensity.' I hope to have succeeded.
“In the 20th century, Heitor Villa-Lobos with his Studies and Manuel de Falla with his Homenaje a Debussy are a starting point for guitar writing. Guimaraes da Rosa gave us the most telluric of the Brazilian landscapes ever romanticized while the deep Nordeste touches mystery and pain in its less known music. This is the intense Brazil, the one I am interested in. Odair can unveil it.
Leo Brouwer” [The Afro-Cuban guitarist, composer and conductor Leo Brouwer (b. 1939) is profiled at AfriClassical.com]
Sonata del caminanteGHA Records
Odair Assad
Leo Brouwer
Afro-Cuban Composer
Premier Recording
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