Carlos Barbosa-Lima

Acoustic guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima performed and recorded a wide repertory incorporating elements of classical music, jazz, and numerous Latin traditions. He has also a noted arranger of music for the guitar. Although he was not strictly a jazz player, his arrangements influenced the jazz world, and he had many jazz-oriented fans. Barbosa-Lima released the first album of his six-decades-plus recording career, Dez Dedos Magicos Num Violão De Ouro, in 1958. Classical composers, including Alberto Ginastera, began to write especially works for him. Barbosa-Lima performed with jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd and met songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim, then living in New York. In 1982, he released the acclaimed Plays The Music Of Antonio Carlos Jobim & George Gershwin. Barbosa-Lima's arrangements drew on classical techniques even as he grafted them onto other genres. He remained active well into old age and released Manisero in 2021. Barbosa-Lima was born Antonio Carlos Ribeiro Barbosa-Lima in São Paulo, Brazil, on December 17, 1944. At seven, he took his first guitar lessons from his father, who transferred what he'd learned during his own period of instruction to his son. Auspiciously talented, Barbosa-Lima was introduced to composer and guitarist Luiz Bonfá, who referred him to classical guitarist Isaias Savio. At 12, Barbosa-Lima gave his debut recital in São Paulo, and the following year, he performed in Rio de Janeiro and appeared on Brazilian television. In 1958, at age 14, Barbosa-Lima released his first album, Dez Dedos Magicos Num Violão De Ouro on RCA subsidiary Chantecler. During the 1960s, he recorded classical works form Brazilian and Latin composers as showcased on 1962's Imortal Catullo. He released a pair of albums in 1966, Álbum De Modinhas and Concerto em Viola Brasileira. He toured through South, Central, and North America, making his U.S. debut in 1967 in Washington. Later that year, he appeared at New York's Carnegie Hall, and that concert and one at Town Hall two years later following the release of 1969's Concerto En Modo Frigio De Eduardo Grau, brought him to the attention of international concert bookers. Classical composers, including Argentina's Alberto Ginastera, began to write works especially for him. After releasing In A Scarlatti Guitar Recital for ABC in 1970, Barbosa-Lima taught at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh from 1974 to 1978. In 1981, Barbosa-Lima moved to New York after accepting a teaching position at the Manhattan School of Music. By that time, he had arranged a good deal of music for guitar, some of it, like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, jazz tinged. Barbosa-Lima performed with jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd and met songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim then living in New York. Both musicians were impressed by Barbosa-Lima's arrangements, that drew on classical techniques, and Byrd arranged for Barbosa-Lima's signing with the Concord label. That year he released the first album in a trilogy highlighting Brazilian and American composers with Plays The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim & George Gershwin for the Concord Concerto imprint. He followed it with Carlos Barbosa-Lima Plays The Entertainer & Selected Works By Scott Joplin a year later. He completed it with 1984's Plays The Music Of Luiz Bonfá And Cole Porter. The following year he issued Impressions, a collection of miniatures by European, Brazilian, Latin and American composers. Barbosa-Lima did not generally improvise, but he gained a strong jazz following and recorded several albums for Concord Picante. His debut, 1987's Brazil, With Love, was recorded in duet with guitarist Sharon Isbin. They performed the works of Brazilian jazz composers and songwriters including Jobim, Alfredo Vianna and Ernesto Nazareth. Jobim himself penned the set's liner notes. The following year the duo released Rhapsody In Blue / West Side Story. In 1989, Barbosa-Lima joined guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Byrd along with bassist larry gtrenadier and drummer Michael Shapiro for Music of the Brazilian Masters, a collection of jazz and classical works. 1991's Chants for the Chief was a co-billed collaboration with Brazilian composer, producer, vocalist and percussionist, Thiago de Mello (brother of the celebrated poet, they share the same name). 1992's Music of the Americas included works by De Mello, Gershwin, and Dave Brubeck. The following year he released Ginastera's Sonata, offering the composer's Sonata Op. 47; Escordio; Scherzo; Canto; Finale framed by other works including Albert Harris's Concertino De California, For Guitar And String Quartet (assisted by the San Francisco String Quartet); Radamés Gnattali (with pianist Patricia Briggs), De Mello, and Almeida. The widely acclaimed set opened with the guitarist's own, "Las Abejas" and "Fabiniana." 1995's solo Twilight In Rio included three original compositions with Johnny Griggs in a recital that also included works by Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, Agustín Barrios-Mangoré, and Paulo Bellinati. 1996's From Yesterday to Penny Lane: Contemporary Works for Solo Guitar and Guitar & Orchestra included works by the Beatles, of course, but also Bobby Scott, Julio Sagreras, and Tárrega alongside originals composed with Griggs. Barbosa-Lima's final album of the 20th century was O Boto, a collection of pieces by various composers for guitar and orchestra and solo guitar. The highly varied set was bookended by George Frederick Handel's Harp Concerto in B flat major, Op.4/6, HWV 294 and Ernesto Cordero's Concierto Antillano. Concord began to shift its aesthetic focus in the early 2000s, and Barbosa-Lima left the roster. He issued a pair of privately released albums in Mambo No. 5 and Natalia. He signed to then-new independent jazz label Zoho Music, whose initial concentration tended toward Latin jazz. The guitarist released the acclaimed Frenesí, a trio offering with percussionist Edgardo Aponte and bassist John Benitez. In 2004 and remained there the rest of his life. Just months later, Siboney appeared from the label, with the guitarist playing solo, as well as leading a quintet with bassist Eddie Gomez, saxophonist Dafnis Prieto, pianist Oscar Hernandez and percussionist Pepe Torres. In 2006 he followed with the trio offering Carioca, featuring bassist Nilson Matta and percussionist Duduka Da Fonseca. Barbosa-Lima spent most of his life performing on the road across the Americas, Europe and Asia. From the turn of the century on, he held no permanent address. He returned to recording with 2009's Merengue, leading a trio offering interpetations of the song form by composers including Antonio Lauro, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Isaías Sávio among others. Harmonicist Hendrik Meurkens and percussionist Fonseca guested on the set. 2013's Leo Brouwer: Beatlerianas was a collaboration with the Cuban composer, guitarist Lawrence Del Casale, and the Havana String Quartet. Brouwer combined popular materials from the Western hemisphere with European styles in a manner related to the music of Villa-Lobos and Ginastera. The Beatlerianas could only, in the broadest sense, be classified as arrangements of Beatles' songs. Some pulled the music in neo-Classic or neo-Baroque directions; some are almost abstract texture studies, though none lost sight of the source material. Given the time the guitarist spent on the road, it proved difficult to record him. As a stopgap Zoho issued the archival offering, The Chantecler Sessions, Vol. 1: 1958-1959, and The Chantecler Sessions, Vol . 2 1960-1961, in 2015 and 2016 respectively. They combined his earliest solo readings of European composers with modern interpretations of works by Latin and Brazilian composers. During the latter year, the guitarist issued Plays Mason Williams. He was a longtime admirer of the composer of the 1968 hit "Classical Gas" for his colorful approach to Western harmony and rhythm. Barbosa-Lima offered his reading of the track in a twin guitar version accompanied by Del Casale with Fonseca on percussion. In all, the set included interpretations of 14 compositions by the American composer and polymath. Barbosa-Lima toured in support of the recording for nearly two years. Barbosa-Lima released Delicado in 2019. Accompanied by Del Casale and Fonseca, Barbosa-Lima wanted to capture the natural beauty of Rio de Janeiro as opposed to its vibrant night life. In a collection of Brazilian songs, he employed many traditional Brazilian rhythms and forms such as bossa, samba and choro. ther ensuing world tour was one of the guitarist's most successful, but was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. He returned to the recording studio and released Manisero in 2021 with German guitarist Johannes Tonio Kreusch and his brother, pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch. It showcased a collection of short pieces from well-known Latin, South American and Brazilian composers including Bonfá, Jobim, Agustin Lara, Manuel Ponce, and Moisés Simons. The set drew rave reviews across the globe. It proved his final album. Barbosa-Lima died after suffering a heart attack in Paraty, Brazil, on February 23, 2022.
© James Manheim, Thom Jurek /TiVo