Egberto Gismonti & Academia de Danças - Maracatu
I have three more tasty treats for May, two anniversaries and a milestone birthday to close it out. The last two are both trumpetfolk, coincidentally: one the most notorious, the other just as glorious.
This here is the first of the anniversary ones, taped 43 years ago today at the classic Fabrik in Hamburg, scene of countless shows of legendary lore and quite a few live records as well.
This is one of those where the group or artist maybe isn't at the top of the world's radar, but the quality of the music dictates it's well worth it for me be attempting sonic improvement upon.
That's what it boils down to for me a lot of the time: since I'm always hot to put either something new and undercirculated, or an improvement to something that's already well circulated, in the ROIO realm, I tend to wanna work on music that I'm in the mood to listen to the million times it sometimes takes to fix these tapes into their best -- or at least, a measurably better -- sonic state of affairs.
I'm also always hyped to feature folks and bands I've never done before, as we know. So at the end of every month, when I scout the 14,000-concert archive for what the next month will contain, I'm constantly filtering it through what I'm inclined to absorb in multiple doses, as well as the tendency toward novelty and minimum repetition.
There's artists I will always hit upon more than once or twice -- like the Miles Davis 1983 thing that's up next, not for his 99th b'day tomorrow, but the show's anniversary on the 29th -- but for the most part I really struggle to be creative, feature new people and, where possible like with that David Lynch soundtrack deal, make new things that never existed before.
So there's that micro-manifesto no one asked for and apropos of precisely nothing. Now let's talk about Egberto Gismonti, a prime example of what I mean when I say I want to cover music and musicians as far away from the usual or the most renowned and stereotypically clickworthy as I can. Or as the limited coterie of people who've toured and had their shows professionally recorded and/or broadcast on FM radio in the last 75 or so years will allow.
You can also tell, if you've been here before, that I have a real, wide open heartspot for the ECM label, and all the diverse and gorgeously reflective music to come from Manfred Eicher's stable of transcendent musicmakers in these last 50+ years since he began that seminal, indispensable imprint.
One such performer and composer is the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti, who's made several LPs for ECM that have never been more than walking distance from my inner, ongoing playlist.
He's mostly to be found playing the 12-string guitars like the one in these pictures, but he's also very proficient at piano and various wind instruments.
His pianistic, hyperpercussive and orchestral approach to the guitar makes him one of the less-thought-of progentiors of the tapping techniques more associated with Rock, and just the general idea of the fretboard as keyboard that is so central to his music kind of sets him apart from the more traditional, straightforward guitar players that might spring to mind.
One of the many groups of which he has been a part is his Academia de Danças project that began in the late 1970s.
Luckily for us music lovers, this group has been caught live in the act on a few broadcasts, one of which is this, which also circulates in a shorter version but is featured here in its complete form. That is to say, The Full Gismonti! And I labored to make it sound better too.
Egberto Gismonti Academia de Danças
NDR Jazzworkshop No. 171
Fabrik
Hamburg, Germany
5.25.1982
01 Maracatu
02 10 Anos
03 Lôro
04 Don Quixote
05 Selva Amazônica
06 Salvador
07 Infância
08 Frevo
09 Karatê
10 Quarto Mundo/Dança das Cabecas
11 Em Família
12 solo features/Em Família (reprise)
13 Palhaço
14 Bodas de Prata
15 Folia
Total time: 2:10:45
disc break goes after Track 09
Egberto Gismonti - guitars, piano & flutes
Zeca Assumpção - bass
Mauro Senise - saxophones & flutes
Nenê (Realcino Lima Filho) - drums & percussion
off-air FM capture of indeterminate origin containing the complete concert, supplied by the immortal jazzrita
edited, retracked, denoised & remastered by EN, May 2025
762 MB FLAC/direct link
762 MB FLAC/direct link
There isn't much to say about this guy or this music, except that if you like things organic and dynamic -- and not Autotuned and artificial -- than you've picked the right bootleg blog this evening.
Like I said I will be back in a few days with a brief from The Chief, coincidentally turning 99 tomorrow. Next year, when he's 100, I might break the internet with tribute. But that's down the road a few days/months/years, and I figured this banger of a Brazilian blast from The Great Gismonti -- still alive and picking at 77 -- was well worthy of an anniversary reorientation.--J.
