Egberto

Back in the early 1990's I used to buy a ton of tapes. I would come home with a bag of used cassettes and play them in my stereo or in the car or even in my Walkman. I would go to the used record store and just pick up a few tapes because I wanted to listen to something durning study hall or when I would go for a bike ride. When I bought records I would have a stash of blank cassettes to fill those up. I would use the blank cassettes for taping songs of radio or Monday night a local radio station from 7-9pm would play a BBC concert or a live archive concert from the 70's. That is how I heard about Deep Purple In Concert from. If you remember that post.

On days I did not go to the used record store to buy tapes I would go to the regular record store and rummage through the cheap tapes. For a cheap price of $3.99 and lower I would find all kinds of cassettes for what I needed. I found most of the King Crimson catalog there. I also found a big pile of ECM tapes. I did not know much about what ECM was all about then, but the guy I knew at the record store told me that I should at least take one or two home and listen. One of the first tapes I picked up was a Keith Jarrett. I liked what I heard and then I went back to get another. One day I took my $20.00 and bought all the tapes I could get with that. They were all ECM. The friend at the shop told me next time I come in he would have some more ECM for me. He was not kidding, he called me at home and told me to bring my backpack . I strolled in on my bike and he handed me about twenty ECM titles. He had all kinds of ECM artists that I listen to. He pointed out three cassettes I should listen to. These were Steve Tibbetts Safe Journey (which I talked about in a previous blog October 29th 2009). Chick Corea Return to Forever and Egberto Gismonti Sol Do Meio Dia (which translates to Midday Sun).



I grabbed all three cassettes and decided that I would devote one tape a day to listen to. I knew very little about ECM then and I did not know much about what they had on their record label. This is about the time I started to broaden my musical spectrum. It was ECM that taught me that you don't have to be listening to Rock and Roll all your life. After the three days of listening to those tapes I decided to listen to the others that he gave me. He had more then one album with Egberto Gismonti on it. I continued listening to those. His guitar playing was quite impressive. Everything he put his hands on had a feel of wonderful and lush world type music. My fascination with ECM continued. I would buy more and more tapes and then I graduated to CD and LP. I look at my collection now and I have about 300 ECM label albums. Every once in a while I pull one out and play it.

The Egberto Gismonti stuff is quite different then any other guitar type album either on ECM or otherwise. In some respects it sounds like a classical guitar and in other albums it sounds like a solo instrument that has it's own unique sound. Egberto's sound on a album called Folk Songs with Jan Garbarek and Charlie Haden(also an ECM album), It does not sound like it's just there for background, lush instrumentation. It has a sense of place where all other people who play guitar. It's like a World Fusion album. There is no question though when you hear his guitar, that he has a incredible signature sound like no other. Even Charlie Haden and Jan Garbarek put their own stamp on it.



With Sol Do Meio Dia he grabs Jan Garbarek for some lush and beautiful passages that only he could do. Ralph Towner who I plan to talk about in a later blog lends his 12-String guitar playing to this mix plus the wonderful Colin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos in their element of Tabla and Percussion round out a wonderful rich sound. The side long Suite is the a very good piece of music. It has everyone playing on it. My personal favorite is a song called "Raga." The song features Colin Walcott and Nana Vasconcelos at what they do so well. Egberto's wonderful Django style guitar playing while Colin and Nana just do something that is hard to describe, but with their talent they do it with such ease and perfection. Another song that shows how great Egberto Gismonti is, "Baiao Malandro" This does not even feature his guitar playing. This features his piano playing. This song is part of the side two suite and is the last song in that part. His piano playing is a sound of a classical concert pianist. Truly great to hear and be in shock.

Given that this came out in 1978 it feels like way out of place for that time period. It is an album only ECM could put out. Enjoy this world fusion album and take it from me it is a must own. It sadly is out of print and with ECM it will slowly come back in print and see the light it so richly deserves. There are other Egberto Gismonti album to check out as well, but this is a great place to start. Enjoy!