{"id":5047,"date":"2016-10-05T15:18:22","date_gmt":"2016-10-05T22:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=5047"},"modified":"2016-10-05T15:18:22","modified_gmt":"2016-10-05T22:18:22","slug":"carlos-barbosa-lima-creating-magic-with-the-songs-of-mason-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/carlos-barbosa-lima-creating-magic-with-the-songs-of-mason-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Barbosa-Lima: Creating Magic with the Songs of Mason Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"
From the Fall 2016 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em><\/a> | BY\u00a0BLAIR JACKSON<\/h6>\n

Next year marks the 60th anniversary\u00a0of Carlos Barbosa-Lima\u2019s solo concert debut at the age of 12 in S\u00e3o Paolo, Brazil, where he was born and raised. To say that his career has been illustrious is an understatement. By the following year he\u2019d recorded an impressive debut album (recently rereleased) and soon after was touring successfully around South America\u2014a true wunderkind<\/em>. A decade later, he conquered the US for the first time, and that became a springboard for work internationally.<\/p>\n

More than just an extraordinary player, however, Barbosa-Lima also developed a reputation as a superb arranger, and as his fame spread, composers started writing pieces for him. He moved to New York City in the early 1980s and taught at the Manhattan School of Music for a number of years before moving to Puerto Rico, where he currently lives, in 1996. All along, he has concertized around the world and recorded a stream of more than 50 albums. His massive discography shows his unparalleled versatility as a player and arranger\u2014mellifluously navigating music by classical giants such as Scarlatti, Bach, Debussy, and Alb\u00e9niz; Brazilians Antonio Carlos Jobim (a close friend who also lived in Manhattan) and Luiz Bonf\u00e1; American greats Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Dave Brubeck, Bobby Scott, and Leonard Bernstein; and diverse modern masters including Leo Brouwer, Django Reinhardt, Alberto Ginastera, and Lennon & McCartney. Many of his arrangements have been published and he has several DVDs to his credit. His appetite for music is seemingly insatiable.<\/p>\n

As always, Barbosa-Lima has been busy since Classical Guitar<\/em> last checked in with him\u2014the cover story of the June 2013 issue mostly dealt with his wonderful Zoho Music label release Beatlerianas<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, featuring Brouwer arrangements of seven Beatles songs for guitar and string quartet, along with eight other Brouwer works for solo guitar, two guitars, string quartet, and guitar-and-string quartet. There have been concerts, of course, both solo and with longtime duo partner Larry Del Casale (pictured with Barbosa-Lima above), and also a brand-new Zoho disc he is quite excited about: Carlos Barbosa-Lima Plays Mason Williams<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, featuring arrangements of more than a dozen pieces by the American composer, whose best-known work is the Grammy-winning 1968 smash hit \u201cClassical Gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Mason Williams<\/em> album was produced by Del Casale, who plays guitar with Barbosa-Lima on half the 14 tracks, and also hired the three other players who help out on a few pieces\u2014Brazilian\/New York\u2013based percussionist Duduka de Fonseca, violinist Daisy Joplin, and clarinetist Rick Kriska. Besides \u201cClassical Gas\u201d\u2014which sounds remarkably fresh in this two guitars-plus-percussion arrangement\u2014many different styles are served up, some of which are telegraphed in their titles: \u201cBaroque-A-Nova,\u201d \u201cFlamenco Lingo,\u201d \u201cCountry Idyll,\u201d \u201cFettucini Western,\u201d \u201cGuitar Carol.\u201d The closing \u201cShenandoah\u201d is not from Williams\u2019 pen, but has been in Williams\u2019 repertoire since the late 1950s, when he was a struggling folk singer. The others span many years and genres, from the beautifully mysterious \u201cSunflower\u201d (propelled by clarinet) to the lyrical and stately guitar duet \u201cIn Honor of\u2026,\u201d written for the wedding of Williams\u2019 daughter Kathy. Melody always reigns supreme in Williams\u2019 songs, and both Barbosa-Lima and Del Casale say that was part of the appeal of doing this project.<\/p>\n

\u201cMason is great melodist,\u201d Barbosa-Lima says by phone from Chile, where he was performing. \u201cI\u2019d put him on the level of the great American writers of the past, like Jerome Kern, but he\u2019s from the late part of the 20th century, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you give Carlos a good melody, he can harmonize and arrange it like nobody else,\u201d adds Del Casale from New York. \u201cThat\u2019s why he dug this stuff so much. He did an amazing job with these pieces, giving them a whole new meaning and really making them his own, as he always does. You can hear Mason\u2019s American-ness in a lot of these pieces, but you can also feel Carlos\u2019 Latin influence in there, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The genesis of the project dates back several years. \u201cUntil a few years ago, I was not that familiar with a lot of Mason\u2019s work,\u201d Barbosa-Lima says. \u201cOf course, I heard \u2018Classical Gas\u2019 when it came out in the \u201960s, and I probably saw [Williams] on the Smothers Brothers\u2019 comedy shows at some point [Williams was head writer for the late \u201960s hit TV series The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour<\/em>, where \u201cClassical Gas\u201d premiered]. But it was actually Bobby Scott\u2014who I had a great relationship with\u2014that first really mentioned Mason Williams to me. Later, I met this music critic in Florida, Jim Carlton, and he\u2019s the one who exposed me to the wide variety of Mason\u2019s music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams is a multi-instrumentalist, perhaps best known for his folk and bluegrass music performed on banjo and acoustic guitars, but Barbosa-Lima says, \u201cMason is also a very good player in the classical style, and he told me that the classical fingerstyle is his favorite.\u201d Between 2010 and 2012, Barbosa-Lima wrote his first few arrangements of Williams\u2019 tunes, working on them between tours, \u201cwhich is usually when I get the inspiration to do something new. My arrangements are usually fairly quick to the concept, but the refining can take a long time. I think by early 2012 I had a half-dozen pieces together, which we sent to Mason. He loved them. When we had six pieces, Mason decided he would produce an EP in Oregon [where Williams lives]. The only pieces I repeated on this [new] recording were \u2018Country Idyll,\u2019 \u2018Shady Dell,\u2019 and \u2018Classical Gas.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after that EP (North By South<\/a><\/em><\/strong>) was completed, Barbosa-Lima, partly at the urging of his friend Mike Turbeville, suggested to Del Casale that they do a full album of Williams\u2019 pieces. According to Del Casale, Williams sent Barbosa-Lima \u201ca giant spiral book about an inch-and-a-half thick, with all of his solo guitar pieces in it, standard notation and tab,\u201d and that put more potential songs into play. Del Casale chose the pieces Barbosa-Lima arranged for the duet, with much of the work on those and the ones featuring violin and clarinet (originally it was flute), being done while Barbosa-\u00a0Lima was visiting Brazil.<\/p>\n

Barbosa-Lima says he and Del Casale met almost exactly 20 years ago in Puerto Rico. \u201cI had moved there, and Ernesto Cordero [a New York\u2013born, Puerto Rico-raised composer and classical guitarist] introduced us.\u201d In 1997, Del Casale had recorded a CD called Zenobia: Music of Ernesto Cordero<\/em>, featuring solo guitar\u00a0pieces and what Del Casale calls \u201cart songs\u201d with mezzo-soprano Puli Toro. Over time, Barbosa-Lima and Del Casale became good friends, so perhaps it was only natural that they would eventually play together, beginning in 2003. \u201cAfter we played at Weill Carnegie Hall,\u201d Del Casale recalls, \u201cI said to myself, \u2018To hell with playing with other people\u2014I\u2019m going to put all my energy into playing with Carlos. Because that was it<\/em> for me\u2014that was the top. We\u2019ve been playing together ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Del Casale, who was in rock bands before he started playing classical guitar at the age of 15, says he\u2019s always preferred playing with other musicians: \u201cEven with my own music, it\u2019s mostly been me with other players. It\u2019s what I like the most. Now Carlos<\/em> is my ensemble,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

For his part, Barbosa-Lima says that Del Casale complements his playing beautifully. \u201cLarry has a slightly darker tone. In a duo, if you try to play the same way, it doesn\u2019t work, because you need contrast. He\u2019s a very good musician. He also helps me choose material and he\u2019s my representative in the studio. His mind is divided in so many directions; I can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both play guitars by the same maker [Richard Prenkert],\u201d Del Casale adds. \u201cCarlos has got a double-top and I\u2019ve got a single-top, and my guitar is a little darker in tone\u2014but my tone itself is warm, where he\u2019s a little brighter. It\u2019s a great blend. When we play together he almost always gives me the melodies, the Guitar 1 part, because he loves the way I \u2018sing\u2019 the melodies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Del Casale and Barbosa-Lima are in marvelous \u201cvoice\u201d on the Mason Williams<\/em> album and are already scouting for the next project. \u201cI always have two or three things brewing\u2014I\u2019ll see what makes the most sense,\u201d Barbosa-Lima says. One possibility is a live album that captures the duo in all its synchronized glory.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, they are eager to get the word out about Mason Williams<\/em>, and Zoho Music continues to reissue some of Barbosa-Lima\u2019s long-out-of-print earlier recordings, such as the newly issued The Chanticler Sessions Volume 1, 1958\u20131959<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, when the guitarist was 13 and 14 years old. Asked how his young self sounds to him today, Barbosa-Lima pauses, then says, \u201cIt\u2019s like splitting myself in two\u2014me now and me then. It was very interesting to hear the pieces. I can hear very distinctive ideas. I was very fortunate when I was young because I had good mentors\u2014people who used to give me honest opinions and didn\u2019t treat me like a child, but instead like a potential artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly, their belief in him paid off more than anyone could have imagined.\b<\/p>\n

Here’s a video of Barbosa-Lima playing his own arrangement of a Ruben Fuentes tune called “La Bikina”:<\/em>
\n