Sketches

Works for solo guitar by Pixinguinha (arr. Roland Dyens), Egberto Gismonti, Ernesto Nazareth (arr. Sergio Assad), Simone Iannareli, and Dušan Bogdanović.

In both Brazil and the United States, African American and European American musical parentage gave birth to a multitude of different styles of music: Choro, Frevo, Blues, and Jazz to name a few.  This album, “Sketches” does not seek out to demonstrate this amalgam in any sort of strict terms, but visits some of these styles dear to my heart, sometimes in a straightforward manner, sometimes in more obscurity. Thank you for listening!

The Brazilian composer and musician Pixinguinha (Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho) is most well known for his Choro playing and compositions. Presented here are three of his choros arranged for solo guitar by then French guitarist and composer, Roland Dyens. 

Another giant of the choro world, Ernesto Nazareth, started composing pieces for piano at a young age. The influence on his music is vast: from the rich harmony of late 18th century composers like Chopin to the syncopated dance rhythms of his native Brazil. The three pieces of Nazareth on this album were arranged for guitar by the masterful, Sergio Assad.

The prolific composer, guitarist, and pianist, Egberto Gismonti’s music fuses the folk music traditions of his native Brazil with the world of classical music. From studying with the famed Parisian composer, Nadia Boulanger to living with the Amazonian Yawaiapitì tribe, the depth of his understanding and experience with different styles of music is profound.

Simone Iannarelli is a composer and classical guitarist born in Rome, Italy, and is currently professor of guitar in Mexico, at the University of Colima. In his “3 Miles Sketches” we find the main theme in the last movement called “Postludio” which is derived from the beginning of “Flamenco Sketches” on Miles Davis’s album, “Kind of Blue”. The material presented in the movements before is created by varying and mutated the beginning notes of the theme.

Dušan Bogdanović is a Serbian-born American composer and classical guitarist whose diversity is best exemplified by his various collaborations and the vast stylistic difference among his compositions. “Blues and Seven Variations” keeps the harmonic structure of the blues throughout while varying the theme presented at the beginning with humor and virtuosity throughout.