ROLAND DYENS : Naquele Tempo- Music of the Brazilian Pixinguinha

PIXINGUINHA :  Proezas de Salon;  Desprezado;  Rosa ; Atencioso ; Ingenuo; Gargalhada ; Oscarina ; Lamentos ; Naquele Tempo ; Carinhoso ; Um A Zero .

Roland Dyens

GSP Recordings: GSP 1035CD

The first thing that strikes you about this music is how fitted to the guitar it is, and yet Pixinguinha (or as he was born Alfredo da Rocha Viana Filho ) was a flautist and a saxophone player, and never wrote a single piece for the guitar, though he wrote literally hundreds of works .

The wonderful and much missed guitarist Roland Dyens has done a fabulous job here of arranging these pieces for guitar. They are all very melodic, full of lovely harmonies and rhythms that are immediately very latinesque and with Dyens playing all these pieces, you know just how superb all his playing and the actual pieces he is playing, are.

There is a large amount of variety here, with some very bouncy pieces and in between, some very tuneful ballads, and so as a result I can happily say that with the recording quality also being very close and superb in every detail that this is a great CD to get hold of, for you certainly will not be disappointed in any way!

Chris Dumigan