Introspection

カルト的な人気を誇るLuiz Bonfaの1972年傑作『Introspection』が再発!

クラシック技巧とブラジルのリズムが融合する、技術的な精密さと深い叙情性を兼ね備えたLuiz Bonfa珠玉のソロ名盤が待望の再発。

ボサノヴァ・ムーブメントを象徴する存在であるLuiz Bonfaは、1950年代後半から60年代にかけてブラジル音楽を世界へと広めた立役者であり、アカデミー賞外国語映画賞を受賞した映画『Black Orpheus』で国際的な名声を確立しました。今回再発された『Introspection』は、ほぼ全編ソロで録音された代表作の一枚。クラシックの技巧とブラジルのリズムを豊かな表現力で融合させ、繊細でありながら芯の強い音色、緻密な表現力が際立つ本作は、彼の芸術性が最も純粋な形で結実した名盤です。

Brazilian guitar genuis Luiz Bonfa issued literally dozens of albums in his lifetime. He is widely celebrated as a composer, bandleader, and interpreter of popular songs from many traditions. His two selections on the bossa nova breakthrough soundtrack Black Orpheus' are among its most most seminal cuts. That all said, almopst no Bonfa recording reaches the dizzying -- if gently stated -- heights of his art the way Introspection does. Recorded in 1972, this album features eight of Bonfa's compositions played on solo guitar--nylon-string, electric, and a specially designed 12-string. There is deep emotion in each track, portrayed by his elegantly articulated phrasing in spare passages of warm, haunting, sometimes somber, always deeply romantic poetic imagery. From the graceful expression of of his classical enunciations on "Enchanted Mirror," where each line is mirrored with chromatic counterpoint, to the shifting scalar morphing in "Reflections," to the gloriously complex yet seamless display of arpeggios on "Rain," to the shimmering Charlie Byrd and Django Reinhardt quotations in "Leque," Bonfa's guitar embodies th whole of not only Brazilian tradition, but also jazz and classical music as well. These compositions sing; they carry the fire and intervallic dimensionality of improvisation and intricacies and subtleties of song. Introspection is one of two titles in Bonfa's catalog that are musts--the other is the fusion classic, Jacaranda. ~ Thom Jurek