Egberto Gismonti’s unique fingerstyle music

Virtuoso Egberto Gismonti’s guitaristic approach stems from both the precision associated with classical guitar and the exploration linked to blues, jazz and rock. Thus, Gismonti says he was influenced in his adolescence by Django Reinhardt and Jimi Hendrix, while he rode the wave of bossa nova following Baden Powell. He gradually integrated pianistic gestures that pushed him to adopt the eight-string guitar, then the ten-string guitar, on which he plays with all ten fingers, like on a keyboard. This playing’s original versatility serves both his solo performance and his international encounters with symphonic or chamber orchestras. His performance with the ensemble I Musici at the Montreal International Jazz Festival in 2010, where he notably performed his “Dança dos escravos”, left an unforgettable memory. The late Yuri Turovsky, founder and conductor of I Musici, then praised in a few words Gismonti’s successful alliance of classical and popular forms: “music is music!”

Brazilian of Lebanese-Sicilian origin, Egberto Gismonti alternates between piano and guitar. He deploys on the latter his insatiable quest for new sounds, whether they come from the works of his compatriot Heitor Villa-Lobos or the French impressionists, especially Maurice Ravel. He began studying classical music as a child, learning piano with Jacques Klein and Aurélio Silveira, before playing his own compositions in concert. While his first works received a warm welcome, he toured Europe, participated in festivals, and recorded in France, Italy and Germany. In 1969, he studied composition in Paris with Jean Baraqué, a disciple of Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, as well as with the famous Nadia Boulanger. She advised him to return to Brazil and draw from the sources of its immense culture. Settled in Teresópolis near Rio de Janeiro in 1971, Gismonti then embarked on a fertile approach of multiple collaborations and inventions, notably with Nana Vasconcelos, Hermeto Pascoal, Flora Purim, Aito Mureira, Jan Gabarek and Charlie Haden. Later, he collaborated with his children Alexandre and Bianca, who also have become composers and virtuoso instrumentalists.

Kinloch Nelson, multi-style virtuoso

With over half a century in the business, virtuoso Kinloch Nelson knows just about every type of guitar and every style that depends on it. As a youngster, he played rock, classical pieces, folk, jazz and popular songs. Active as a guitarist from 1969, he studied classical guitar with Stanley Watson and jazz with Gene Bertoncini. From 1973, for 25 years, he taught at the Hochstein Music School in Rochester (NY). He also gave workshops at the University of Rochester, and in 1985 founded the city’s Guitar Society. The Society hosted the world’s finest guitarists for a decade, while supporting local talent with master classes, concerts and help in designing the guitar program at the Eastman School of Music. On his website, Kinloch Nelson offers courses and workshops, and welcomes inquiries from interested parties.

Kinloch Nelson has performed at art centers and major festivals throughout the United States. He has also played in Canada, Ireland and Peru. His personal approach to fingerstyle guitar pays particular attention to the timbre and subtle colors that a good instrument can deliver under his fingers. According to his inspiration, he plays his own versions of pieces by Miles Davis, Bach, John Fahey or the Ventures, for example, always inserting a musicality that is both intimate and luminous.

Martin Taylor, a fingerstyle king and a gentleman

Martin Taylor, one of fingerstyle’s luminaries, grew up in a family of musicians who loved gypsy jazz. He started playing at the age of four and four years later often played with his father’s band. Influenced from the start by the great Django Reinhardt (1910-1953), he studied with Ike Isaacs who introduced him to the legendary Stéphane Grappelli, violinist of the Hot Club de France quintet. Grappelli first invited him to take part in a few European concerts, then had him join his group full-time. Taylor played Django’s part for the next eleven years, both on stage and on record. This notable presence allowed him to lead a solo career during which he collaborated with jazz and fingerstyle greats (Jeff Beck, Tommy Emmanuel, Chet Atkins, Stephane Grappelli, David Grisman, George Harrison, Jamie Cullum, Bryn Terfel, Dianne Schuur, Gary Burton), in addition to playing with Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. A leader in English jazz, he holds more British Jazz Awards than he has fingers and more awards of all kinds than he can name. The virtuoso Pat Metheny sees him as “one of the most awesome solo guitar players in the history of the instrument”. Chet Atkins simply called him “one of the greatest guitarists in the world.” Martin Taylor has an altruistic philosophy based on his love for music and for the guitar. That’s what makes him a fingerstyle gentleman and an international guitar teacher.

Andrès Segovia (1893-1987), classical guitar icon

In classical music, “Andrès Segovia” is almost synonymous with the word “guitar”, because of the importance of his contribution to the instrument’s repertoire and fame. At the beginning of the 20th century, the guitar was not considered worthy of the classical domain like the piano or the violin, even in Spain. This lack of recognition came partly from a technical problem: the guitar as it was made at the time did not emit a sound powerful enough for most concert halls. It was also associated mostly with popular music.

Segovia tackled both problems head-on. First, among the models available at the time, he obtained an exceptional guitar from José Ramirez. According to his memory, the maker told him that he would “pay by making its manufacturer known around the world.” Later, he collaborated with luthier Hermann Hauser Sr. to improve the sound of a new model with better quality woods and strings. Both also made the instrument evolve into a larger format that deployed more resonance. At the same time, Segovia was developing a demanding repertoire, both classical and contemporary. In addition to adapting pieces by Francisco Tárrega, while touring the US in 1928 he performed the “Études” dedicated to him by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. A long-term friendship was established between them and they contributed to each other’s reputation. The guitarist also worked on adapting Bach’s repertoire to the guitar, interpreting in 1935 his version of the “Chaconne” from Partita No. 2, a demanding piece for any musician.

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Leo Kottke, steel-string virtuoso

Leo Kottke (born in 1945) is a fingerstyle guitarist based in Minneapolis who mostly plays solo, alternating between his 6- and 12-string guitars. Singing occasionally, he also entertains audiences with humorous anecdotes and monologues. Kottke’s virtuosity on the guitar is always balanced by his musicality, both blending to make steel-string guitars sing. He once explained that music and scuba diving had something in common: you feel as if floating freely surrounded by beauty.

As a boy, Kottke learned to play trombone and violin, but moved on to the guitar and invented an original picking style. Later, while he was in the Naval Reserve, his already damaged hearing was further impaired by explosions. After getting his discharge from the Navy, Kottke busked his way from state to state and finally settled in Minnesota. His debut album, 12-String Blues, was released in 1969 on an independent record label. The same year, he recorded 6- and 12-String Guitar for John Fahey’s Takoma Records. Destined to become his iconic work, it was re-released on various labels through the years. In 1971, Kottke recorded Mudlark for Capitol, which was followed by Greenhouse and five other albums. The last one, Chewing Pine, lead to his move to Chrysalis Records in 1976. By then, his performances at folk festivals had grown his international audience.

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Bola Sete (1923-1987): Brazilian fingerstyle pioneer

Nicknamed Bola Sete (ball no 7) after the black ball of the billiard game by the members of a jazz band, Djalma de Andrade was born in Rio de Janeiro. He studied guitar at the Conservatory and started to play in samba groups. He was influenced by Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian and Barney Kessel, and by the style of the big bands of Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Dorsey and Woody Herman, who were then touring South America.

After spending 4 years in Italy, he came back to Brazil and joined bands that traveled all over South America. In the footsteps of João Gilberto, he became one of the early promoters of bossa nova’s fingerstyle approach to the guitar. The manager of Sheraton Hotels offered him to tour the chain’s establishments in the US, where he met Dizzy Gillespie while playing in San Francisco. Gillespie introduced him to the Montery Jazz Festival’s audience in 1962, and he was a huge success. He then joined Vince Guaraldi’s trio, did several well-received recordings with it before starting his own trio with bassist Sebastião Neto and drummer Paulinho da Costa. The recording of their performance at the Monterey Festival in 1966 made it to the 20th position on Billboard’s Jazz chart.

In the 1970s, guitarist John Fahey invited Sete to record on his Takoma label and released Ocean, now considered by many as his greatest work.

Caroline Planté, flamenco guitarist

At seven years old, Montreal-born Caroline Planté was introduced to flamenco guitar by her father, Marcel Planté, aka “El Rubio” (the Blond). She went on to study in Seville and in Madrid, Spain, composing and giving many concerts, including performances in main festivals as the musical director, from 2005 to 2013, of the Cruceta company. She also collaborated with choreographer Myriam Allard, creating music for El12 and Moi & les autres. Caroline contributes to flamenco’s vitality – and to some of its forays off the beaten track – in Montreal, where she is the Flamenco Festival’s artistic director. Her 2010 CD, 8REFLEXIONES, the first flamenco opus entirely composed and performed by a female guitarist, earned the artist a place on the roster of the Sangre Nueva, Jóvenes Flamencos Festival, at the Teatro de Madrid.

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Joe Pass (1929-1994), jazz fingerstyle master

Mariano Passalaqua was a coal miner and steel mill worker who decided his son would have a better way of earning a living than his own. He gave young Joseph Anthony (later known as Joe Pass) a flat-top Harmony steel-string on his 9th birthday and imposed hours of daily practice which involved playing along whatever songs were frequently heard on the radio. Three years later, Joe got a Martin fitted with a DeArmond pickup and began to look forward to playing professionally. He got to be so good as to enter Tony Pastor’s band at 14, improvising on standards such as Honeysuckle Rose and I Got Rhythm, while applying ideas he took from jazz-guitar influencers Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery, or from saxophone genius Charlie Parker and pianist virtuoso Art Tatum.

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What is Fingerstyle Guitar?

Fingerstyle guitar is a technique in which bass line, chords and melody are played together.

The technique derives from the classical guitar arpeggio approach for the right-hand: the thumb covers the three bass strings, the index plays the 3rd, the middle finger the 2nd, and the ring finger the 1st. Most methods symbolise these fingers with capital letters: P = thumb, I = index, M = middle finger, A = ring finger. If you wonder why the thumb and ring finger don’t have their first letter as a symbol, you’ll find the answer in Spanish (thumb = pulgar; ring finger = anular).

First exercises involve playing any chord as an arpeggio, then experimenting with different picking patterns. Continue reading “What is Fingerstyle Guitar?”