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By Cuban maestro Leo Brouwer,
Un Dia de Noviembre is a lovely and deceptively
simple-sounding piece. Mr. Brouwer is a composer
and guitarist extraordinaire, whose work seems to
combine elements of Afro-Cuban, folk, romantic,
South American and European influences. This
piece always makes me think of the ever-changing
climate (both literally and emotionally) that can
occur on One November Day.
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When played as an
instrumental this is also known as Londonderry
Air, and/or the Derry Air (but be very careful
how you pronounce those, especially in France.)
The music is credited to Rory Dall O`Cathain who
was chief harpist to Hugh O`Neill, the last of
the great Gaelic Chieftains (d. 1616.)
Incidentally the "London" add on to "Derry" is
relatively recent by Irish standards, occurring
around 1610, but "Derry" itself is only the
Anglicized version of the earlier Gaelic name of
the town, "Doire Colmcille." Translated to
English, "Doire Colmcille" means "The Oak Wood Of
Colmcille." Therefore, since the Gaelic word for
`air` is `fonn,` perhaps the most accurate name
for this piece might be Fonn Doire Colmcille.
This version is loosely based on Toru Takemitsu`s
arrangement, but with vastly different fingerings
designed to take advantage of the tonal
characteristics (i.e. sustain) available on a
steel-string guitar. Erin go bragh!
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Manuel Maria Ponce
(1882-1948) was born in Mexico and during his
lifetime wrote orchestral works, piano studies, a
violin concerto and dozens of guitar pieces --
most of them for Andres Segovia. At one point
early in the century he wrote the remarkable
Twenty-Four Preludes, of which this short piece
is the eighth. Warning to purists: I`ve thrown
in a few detours.
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Augustin Pio
Barrios (1885-1944,) "The Paganini of the Guitar
from the Jungles of Paraguay" began his recording
career in 1910 and wrote prolifically for solo
guitar. He is said to have composed over 300
pieces; of those, over 80 survived in manuscript
plus another 60 or so on his own 78 RPM
recordings. Mr. Barrios`s compositions encompass
a variety of stylistic influences, from classical
to romantic to folklore-inspired dances and
mazurkas. His playing was dazzling, and all the
more so when one considers the limitations of the
era`s instruments and recording techniques; no
editing could be possible in 1910. Barrios
created Julia Florida while traveling in Costa
Rica and named it for one of his young students,
the niece of a friend. There is no recording of
him playing the piece, but it did survive in
manuscript.
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My old pal Carl Buffa showed me GLORY OF LOVE
back in about 1967; and SWINGIN` ON A STAR was
suggested by my wife Laurie as a possible vehicle
for fingerstyle guitar. This tune appeared on
Filthy Rich, so thank you to Rounder Records for
permission to include it here.
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Pau De Chuva is part of a work
called Suite Contatos, composed by the
extraordinary Brazilian guitarist Paulo Bellinati
and previously recorded beautifully by Cristina
Azuma. At once both mercurial and melancholy,
this piece makes me want to sail to Salvador de
Bahia on the next ship out. Thank you, Paulo.
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In terms of both ability and
popularity, Blind Blake was the preeminent
ragtime and blues guitarist of the 1920`s.
Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, Blake (r. n.
either Arthur Blake or Arthur Phelps) began a
successful recording career in 1926 when he waxed
the rag tour-de-force West Coast Blues. Over the
next six years he recorded 79 of his own titles
and appeared as a sideman on scores of other
recordings. No one knows whatever became of him
-- he seems to have fallen off the planet
sometime in the early `30s, and the Rev. Gary
Davis once inferred that Blake may have been hit
by a streetcar in New York City. Blake`s guitar
virtuosity is evidenced by a complete command of
nearly all keys and various tunings, including
Open-D, the tuning used here. Police Dog Blues
was originally recorded in 1929.
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This tune is based on a traditional Nigerian chant,
originating from the Yoruba people. This guitar
version was put together by Cuban Hector Angulo
(who incidentally also has partial writing credit
for the old hit song Guantanaméra.) Some folks
find this piece spooky -- I hear it more as
ethereal, filmy, even gossamer. It first crossed
my ears about 30 years ago on a long out-of-print
French LP, and I`ve been haunted by it`s melody
ever since. (PS: Yes, the middle section is
supposed to sound like that...)
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This music was
composed by Marguerite Monnot, but it was a vocal
version that became a hit in 1950 by none other
than "The Sparrow" herself, Miss Edith Piaf (who
also wrote lyrics to it.) Here I`ve started out
with an arrangement by Roland Dyens, then given
it a few twists by changing the tuning and key,
axing the bridge and altering the fingerings.
Sure it`s a bit corny, but I`ve always been a
sucker for good piece of salon music.
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Jacques Bittner
was a French composer who wrote for baroque lute,
a 14-course instrument of considerable difficulty
and unwieldiness. (I`ve heard it said that
baroque lutenists spend half their time tuning,
and the other half playing out of tune.) Almost
nothing is known about Bittner except that in
1682 he published (in French tablature) a
collection of 10 suites with the title Pieces de
Lut. This modest bit of improvising is based
upon themes from the Suite in G-minor , although
here it`s played in F#-minor.
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This is an old Tin Pan Alley song
reputedly written in 1932 by Lorenzo Barcelata,
and later adopted as a tribute to the
then-first-lady of Mexico. In the 1940`s an
English-language vocal version by none other than
the Lawrence Welk Orchestra actually made the Hit
Parade; then a few decades later an instrumental
of it made the charts again, this time by Los
Indios Tabajaros. I recorded a short version of
this nearly 20 years ago (on Bloodshot Eyes,) but
this is a new recording of a more fully-realized
arrangement.
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This song is another old Tin Pan
Alley composition -- the music was written in
1924 by Isham Jones. In putting this together
for guitar it struck me that it could possibly
use a bridge, so I swiped 20 seconds or so from
an old Civil War tune called My Blue Belle and
stuck it into the middle. Thank you to Merle
Travis and my old pal John Koenig for influences.
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This is the first half of
the composition Dos Temas Populaires Cubanos, a
two-part piece by the brilliant Leo Brouwer (the
other half of which directly follows.) Many of
Mr. Brouwer`s works are very challenging and
dissonant, but this charmer is simply lush.
Berceuse is French for "lullaby," and here the
composer has drawn upon the thematic base of an
Afro-Cuban lullaby called Drume Negrita by Eliséo
Grenét. I recorded this piece once before, on
20th Anniversary-Live! -- this is basically the
same arrangement only recorded in studio.
Incidentally it should be noted that Leo
Brouwer`s grandmother was the sister of Ernesto
Lecuoña, the man who wrote Malagueña and who is
regarded to have been one of Cuba`s most
important composers.
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Ojos Brujos is part two of
Dos Temas Populaires Cubanos (see Berceuse
above.) This one knocks me out! I was too much
of a bonehead to make any sense out of the
standard notation, so thank you to Chris Judge
for transcribing it into tablature, and thank you
Laurie for eventually getting this tune under my
skin so much that I had to learn it.
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This tune is a recently-written piece by the
wonderful Paris-born guitarist/composer Francis
Kleynjans. Loosely translated, a barcarolle is a
"boat song" -- more specifically a song meant to
capture the feel of a Venetian gondola ride.
While it`s been over 30 years since I`ve had that
particular pleasure, to my ear this piece
succeeds admirably in evoking the image of gently
rolling waters.
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Luis Milan
was a 16th Century Spanish-born player of the
wire-strung vihuela, and was one of the most
celebrated musicians of his era. In the early
1500`s he wrote a theme upon which six variations
were conceived 400 years later by Joaquin
Nin-Culmell, brother of the renowned writer Anais
Nin and son of the equally revered musicologist
Joaquin Nin. Born in Berlin (but also
simultaneously claimed by Spain, Cuba and the
USA,) at the time of this writing Mr. Nin-Culmell
is living in California -- at nearly 100 years of
age he is still artistically active. This
recording includes my variations on segments of
two of Nin-Culmell`s variations on a theme by
Milan. (Whew!)
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This is a
traditional gospel song from the repertoire of
the great Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence. For
those who are unfamiliar, Spence was born in 1910
on Andros Island. As a child he taught himself
guitar, and he spent his early years on Andros as
a sponge fisherman. (And by the way, have you
ever wondered just how deep the ocean might be if
there were no sponges?) Spence eventually moved
to Nassau and became a stone mason. It wasn`t
until 1958 that he was first recorded, when Sam
Charters unexpectedly came across him and the
tapes of that meeting were issued on Folkways
Records.
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On this piece I
must plead guilty to musical truncation in
perhaps it`s most egregious form. Francis
Kleynjans composed the suite Aux Lumieres du
Crépuscule Op.54 (In the Lights of the Twilight,)
of which Tristesse is section number four out of
five -- and this recording is only one part (the
theme) to that section. Notwithstanding my
abbreviations, Mr. Kleynjans is fast becoming one
of my favorite composers for guitar, and his work
is highly recommended. I`ve always been
particularly fond of this piece`s ending, so I
figured Tristesse might just be an apt choice to
finish out this program.
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