Egberto Amin Gismonti (born December 5, 1947) is a Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist.

Biography

Egberto Gismonti - Portrait by Gert Chesi

Gismonti was born in the small city of Carmo, state of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, into a musical family. His mother was from

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and his father was from

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. At the age of six, he started studying the piano at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music. After studying the classical repertoire in Brazil for fifteen years, he went to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, France, to delve into modern music. He studied with

Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist. From a ...

(1887–1979), after acceptance as a student by the composer

Jean Barraqué Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué (17 January 192817 August 1973) was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output. Life Barraqué was born in Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1931 ...

, a student of

Anton Webern Anton Friedrich Wilhelm von Webern (3 December 188315 September 1945), better known as Anton Webern (), was an Austrian composer and conductor whose music was among the most radical of its milieu in its sheer concision, even aphorism, and stead ...

and Schoenberg. Boulanger encouraged Gismonti to write the collective Brazilian experience into his music. Gismonti is a self-taught guitarist. After returning to Brazil, he designed guitars with more than six strings, expanding the possibilities of the instrument. Approaching the fretboard as if it were a keyboard, Gismonti gives the impression that there is more than a single guitar player. Gismonti's sojourn in the Xingu region of the Amazon basin made a lasting impression. This is documented musically in tunes like "Yualapeti" and "Sapain" (Yualapeti shaman, Sapain) and in the recordings ''

Dança das Cabeças ''Dança das Cabeças'' (Portuguese for "Dance of the Heads") is an album by Brazilian composer, guitarist and pianist Egberto Gismonti recorded in 1976 and released on the ECM label.

'' (Dance of the Heads, 1977), ''Sol do Meio-Dia'' (Noon Sun, 1978), which he dedicated to the Xingu, and '' Duas Vozes'' (Two Voices, 1984). The musical career of Gismonti spans five decades. The major phases are distinguished by record company, the ensemble format, and the musical collaborators. The most important ensembles are his Brazilian group Academia de Danças, including Mauro Senise (saxophone and flutes), Zeca Assumpção (bass) and Nenê (Realcino Lima Filho, drums and percussion), the duo with

Naná Vasconcelos Juvenal de Holanda Vasconcelos, known as Naná Vasconcelos (2 August 1944 – 9 March 2016), was a Brazilian percussionist, vocalist and berimbau player, notable for his work as a solo artist on over two dozen albums, and as a backing musician wi ...

(percussion), and the trio with

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

(bass) and

Jan Garbarek Jan Garbarek () (born 4 March 1947) is a Norwegian jazz saxophonist, who is also active in classical music and world music. Garbarek was born in Mysen, Østfold, southeastern Norway, the only child of a former Polish prisoner of war, Czesław ...

(saxophone). '' Dança das Cabecas'', the first ECM record, was nominated 'Album of the Year' by ''

Stereo Review ''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...

'' and received the 1977 ''Großer Deutscher Schallplattenpreis''.

Discography

* ''Egberto Gismonti'' ( Elenco, 1969) * ''Sonho '70'' (

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States ...

, 1970) * ''Orfeo Novo'' ( MPS, 1970) * '' Água e Vinho'' (EMI-Odeon, 1972) * ''Egberto Gismonti'' (EMI-Odeon, 1973) * ''Árvore'' (Decca/ECM, 1973) * ''Academia de Danças'' (

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British Transnational corporation, transnational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in March 1 ...

, 1974) * ''Corações Futuristas'' ( Odeon, 1976) * ''Carmo'' (EMI, 1977) * ''

'' ( ECM, 1977) with

* ''Nó Caipira'' (Odeon, 1978) * '' Sol do Meio Dia'' (ECM, 1978) * ''

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'' (ECM, 1979) * '' Mágico'' (ECM, 1979) with

and

* '' Circense'' (1980) * ''

Folk Songs Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has be ...

'' (ECM, 1981) with Charlie Haden and Jan Garbarek * '' Sanfona'' (ECM, 1981) solo and with Academia de Dancas * ''Em Família'' (EMI, 1981) * ''Fantasia'' (1982) * ''Cidade Coração'' (1983) * ''Bandeira do Brasil'' (1984) * '' Duas Vozes'' (ECM, 1984) with Naná Vasconcelos * ''Trem Caipira'' (1985) * ''Live at Berlin Jazzbühne Jazz Festival'' (1984) * ''Alma'' (1986) * ''O Pagador de Promessas'' (1988) * '' Dança dos Escravos'' (ECM, 1989) * ''Feixe de Luz'' (1988) * ''Presents a Musical Childhood with Infância'' (1990) * ''Amazônia'' (1991) * ''Kuarup'' (Carmo, 1991) * ''Infância'' (ECM, 1991) * ''Casa das Andorinhas'' (1992) * ''Música de Sobrevivência'' (1993) * ''Brasil Musical'' (1993) * ''Zig Zag'' (ECM, 1995) * ''Forrobodó'' (Carmo, 1996) * ''Violão'' (Carmo, 1996) * ''Meeting Point'' (ECM, 1997) * '' In Montreal'' (ECM, 2001) with Charlie Haden * ''Corações Futuristas'' (EMI, 2001) * ''Retratos'' (EMI, 2004) * ''Saudações'' (ECM, 2009) * '' Mágico: Carta de Amor'' (ECM, 2012) with Jan Garbarek and Charlie Haden

References

External links

Oldies.com
*
Egberto Gismonti on ECM Records
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gismonti, Egberto Brazilian composers Brazilian multi-instrumentalists 1947 births Living people Brazilian classical composers Brazilian classical guitarists Brazilian male guitarists Brazilian classical pianists Brazilian jazz composers Brazilian jazz guitarists Brazilian jazz pianists Postmodern composers Male classical composers ECM Records artists Brazilian people of Italian descent 20th-century Brazilian musicians 21st-century Brazilian musicians 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers 20th-century guitarists 21st-century guitarists 20th-century classical pianists 21st-century classical pianists Male classical pianists Male jazz composers 20th-century male musicians 21st-century male musicians 20th-century jazz composers 21st-century jazz composers