The music of Brazilian guitarist and composer Baden Powell has enchanted listeners for decades. His ability to combine elements of jazz, classical, and Brazilian folkloric music into his own singular genre that was spoken only on his nylon string, acoustic guitar has maintained his quiet legend status throughout the world.
Born in France, but raised in Brazil, bassist/composer Gui Duvignau was drawn to the music of Baden Powell through his Brazilian guitarist friends, who all considered Powell a fundamental figure in the worlds of Brazilian music and acoustic guitar. During his own guitar study, Duvignau asked friends for pointers and they continually referred him to Powell’s techniques. Further exploration of Powell’s repertoire led the bassist to the revelations provided by the fantastic music of the guitarist.
Years of studying and performing the music of Baden Powell led Duvignau to the idea of developing a recording celebrating the great guitarist. Duvignau’s new recording, Baden, uses Powell’s beloved songs as a foundation for explorative interpretations and improvisations from Duvignau’s fantastic ensemble, along with two highly esteemed guests, Ron Carter and Bill Frisell.
As a well-studied musician, Duvignau was astounded by Powell’s classical-honed technique and ability to communicate across genres. The guitarist’s music was a breath of fresh air and there was a sense of the spiritual in everything that Powell played, including the many interpretations he made of religious music of Brazil’s African-derived religions, like Candomblé and Umbanda. The guitarist was unique as he looked more toward the influences of samba rather than the bossa nova style that was popular at the time.
Duvignau felt that the best way to pay tribute to Powell was to play his music as openly as possible; not try to make a recording that was a Brazilian jazz record. Thus, Duvignau pointed this out to the musicians that he wanted to play with as he knew they could take the music anywhere. He welcomed back two mentors and friends who had appeared on his previous recording, 3, 5, 8, woodwind master Billy Drewes and drummer Jeff Hirshfield. Duvignau also recruited fellow Berklee alum, pianist Lawrence Fields, a great bandmate and consummate professional.
To make the project even more special, Duvignau invited his mentor Ron Carter to participate on a track. The bassist also recruited the great guitarist Bill Frisell to add his brilliant tones to a number of the pieces.
The recording begins with Powell and Vinícius de Moraes’s “Canto de Ossanha,” perhaps Powell’s most well-known piece and one that Duvignau felt necessary to include. Here the tune’s mysterious then upbeat nature is carried by Frisell’s guitar and Drewes’s lithe soprano sax. Another Powell and de Moraes collaboration from their Os Afro Sambas record, “Canto de Xangô” is a waltzing piece inspired by Candomblé ritual music that was passed down from West Africa. Fields’s piano solo is especially inspiring here. Duvignau scaled the band down to a trio with Frisell and Hirshfield for “Tristeza e Solidão,” his resonant bass work blending beautifully with Frisell’s unmistakable guitar.
Duvignau wrote “Ao Baden” when he first discovered Powell’s music and is loosely based on the chord changes of “O Astronauta.” Luiz Gonzaga and Humberto Teixeira’s “Asa Branca” is a bluesy piece that Powell recorded frequently. Duvignau wrote the blues piece “Bluesa Preta” to introduce it and be performed with Mr. Carter in a moving duo. The impressionistic “Canto de Iemanjá” is another piece from Os Afro Sambas and provides a magical setting for Drewes over Fields’s Wurlitzer playing. Powell and Paulo César Pinheiro’s “Refém da Solidão” is a simple but beautiful ballad, while Powell and de Moraes’s “O Astronauta” has a natural, standard-like feel orbiting in the hands of this jazz quartet.
Duvignau’s subdued “Mata Adentro” (meaning “Into the Forest”) is open and minimal, providing ample space for Drewes, Frisell, Hirshfield, and the leader to explore texturally. The bassist challenged himself and took on Powell and de Moraes’s “Berimbau” and “Consolação” as a solo piece for bass, channeling the mystical sounds perfectly. Powell and Pinheiro’s “Lapinha” is a song about a capoeira master from Bahia and the ensemble performs it in a bright and folkloric manner. The recording concludes with Duvignau’s tribute to Powell and Frisell, “For Bill & Baden,” finishing the record with a blues as Duvignau does most performances.
The music of Baden Powell has been a revelation for Gui Duvignau since he discovered the guitarist a number of years ago. The bassist has assembled a fantastic ensemble and program to pay tribute to the Brazilian great on Baden.
1. Canto de Ossanha
2. Canto de Xangô
3. Tristeza e Solidão
4. Ao Baden
5. Bluesa Preta / Asa Branca
6. Canto de Iemanjá
7. Refém da Solidão
8. O Astronauta
9. Mata Adentro
10. Berimbau / Consolação
11. Lapinha
12. For Bill & Baden
Billy Drewes - saxophones, clarinet
Lawrence Fields - piano, Wurlitzer
Gui Duvignau - bass
Jeff Hirshfield - drums
Ron Carter - bass (track 5)
Bill Frisell - guitar (tracks 1, 3, 9, 12)
