CD: El Manisero

Feat.:

Carlos Barbosa-Lima (†): guitar
Johannes Tonio Kreusch: guitar
* special guest: Cornelius Claudio Kreusch: piano

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Tracks

Moisés Simons
1. El Manisero*

Luiz Bonfá
2. Manhã de Carnaval*

Agustín Lara
3. Solamente una vez

Antônio Carlos Jobim
4. Canta Maize

Manuel Esperón
5. Ay, Jalisco no te rajes*

Antônio Carlos Jobim
6. Por Causa de Você

Alfredo Viana (Pixinguinha)
7. Pink

Quirino Mendoza y Cortés
8. Cielito Lindo

Alberto Ginastera
9. Danza Criolla

Alberto Ginastera
10. Danza Criolla III

Alberto Ginastera
11. Gato

Heitor Villa-Lobos
12. Sentimental Melody

Manuel María Ponce
13. Estrellita*

All arrangements by Carlos Barbosa-Lima (†)

For more information and audio samples, please visit:
https://www.glm.de/produkt/el-manisero-carlos-barbosa-lima-johannes-tonio-kreusch/

Review of El Manisero on crescendo:

“… Congenial. Two of them looked for and found each other. (…) Together they now present “El Manisero”, a sparkling virtuoso, heartwarming album…”

More on crescendo.de: https://crescendo.de/carlos-barbosa-lima-johannes-tonio-kreusch-1000165574/

Via: El Manisero

For too long, music has been pigeonholed in Germany. In E- and U-music, in composed classical and improvised jazz, in all kinds of Anglicisms from traditional-roots-music to modern-contemporary-avant-garde. The acoustic guitar fell through the cracks often enough and thus ended up in its own niche, an organizer parallel world. All this is the only possible explanation for the fact that the 76-year-old Carlos Barbosa-Lima is still hardly known in this country today. After all, he is not someone who would have served the drawers, but a man who is a legend not only in the Musica Populeira of his native Brazil, but also in the Latin jazz of North America and in the worldwide guitarist scene. Who was already considered a child prodigy in his hometown of Sao Paulo in the fifties, made his debut at 13, went out into the world at 16, worked in Spain with the giant of classical guitar Andrés Segovia and later in New York – for a long time his “home base” – with Antonio Carlos Jobim, the inventor of bossa nova. Who has recorded more than 100 albums to date, in different genres, but always characterized by his own, unique, Brazilian-based style. And who has performed in the most important halls in the world, for example at the age of 21 for the first time in Carnegie Hall.

The perfect opportunity to meet Carlos Barbosa-Lima is now his first album on GLM “El Manisero”. Not only his unmistakable playing on the strings can be discovered, which is based on rhythm and melody on an equal footing as with few other guitarists and always surprises with unusual harmonic turns or contrapuntal, polyphonic extensions (with correspondingly extravagant handles). One of the most gifted and influential arrangers also confronts you here. With more than a thousand transcriptions and arrangements, Carlos Barbosa-Lima has enriched the guitar repertoire in a unique way, inspiring many great composers to write works for the guitar. Here he demonstrates this mastery on the one hand in his very own field: on a walk through the cosmos of world-famous Latin American pieces. And on the other hand, with the fact that he has arranged them all new and especially for a guitar duet with his friend Johannes Tonio Kreusch.

Kreusch, himself a recognized figure in the classical guitar scene, is of course much more than just a musical duet partner. During his studies at the Juilliard School in New York, he gained the decisive insight into Latin American music at Barbosa-Lima and became one of its important interpreters himself. Already his debut amazed with a – just reissued – revolutionary Heitor Villa Lobos recording, which is still considered a milestone due to its accuracy and Kreusch’s empathy for his musical imagination. For a long time, Kreusch has also been working with composers such as the Cuban Tullio Peramo Cabrera or the Argentine Maximo Diego Pujol, who write pieces for him.

Above all, however, Kreusch himself has never been able to make friends with musical drawers. He already found his classical training to be (musically) unworldly, so he experimented with guitar sound at an early age and – with the help of his brother, the jazz pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch – also found the way to improvisation. Gradually, he also tried from the other side to give the guitar more attention and breadth: as an organizer and organizer. When he received the offer 16 years ago to take over the artistic direction of the tranquil guitar festival in Hersbruck in the Nuremberg region, he saw another opportunity. With the then completely new approach of integrating all genres and styles, he gradually made the festival one of the most internationally respected and important. It is therefore no coincidence that Carlos Barbosa-Lima made his German debut here in 2011 and is now one of the absolute favourites of the public.

Kreusch and Barbosa-Lima are therefore the perfect combination to make even the most famous catchy tunes of Latin American music such as the eponymous “El Manisero” by Moisés Simons, “Rosa” by the Brazilian predecessor and choro grandmaster Pixinguinha or Manuel María Ponce’s “Estrellita” sound completely new, fresh, lively and with a very personal one. This is also due to the fact that Barbosa-Lima mainly chose pieces with which he has long maintained a strong individual relationship. For example, the famous “Manhã de Carnaval”, one of Luiz Bonfá’s hits from the time when the young Barbosa-Lima was personally introduced to the star of the time. Or, of course, to the Antônio Carlos Jobim songs “Canta Mais” and “Por Causa de Você”, which arose from the joint work. Finally, it is no coincidence that three pieces of the album are by Alberto Ginastera: The collaboration with the Argentine composer was probably one of the most satisfying and successful for Barbosa-Lima and culminated in Ginastera’s Sonata op. 47, which became a milestone in classical guitar literature.

All this rounds off on “El Manisero” under Barbosa-Lima’s awake, incorruptibly always focused on the mind that makes the most meaningful for the respective piece to an irresistible pleasure. The arrangements permeate the pieces as an intellectual challenge without ever becoming difficult. Barbosa-Lima gives them enormous variability in the completely equal playing of the guitars and leaves them a lot of space – so much space that with four songs the producer of the album, Cornelius Claudio Kreusch, can also contribute abundance and brilliance as a special guest with spontaneous, economical piano playing. From cheerful to melancholic, from playful pizzicati to lyrical legati, from pure harmony to suspenseful dissonant, from massive unison to swirling question and answer games, the palette ranges, always filigree and committed to the full expressive power of the guitar. “El Manisero” is a masterpiece made from master hands. One that breaks all drawers.

Oliver Hochkeppel