LUIZ BONFA BRAZILIAN WIZARD Brian Hodel He has been described technically as a “wizard”? and a “‘yirtuoso”, and rousically as “a master of the soft-sell”. Hearing him live or on record, one is immediately taken ‘aback by the sheer variety of things he can do on a guitar. Whether playing a driving samba or a sultry tropical ballad, he constantly changes textures, adds a bit of pizzicato in the bass, ora percussive effect to enhance what he is doing: draw the listener further into his music. Bonfé is the composer of numerous hit songs including the international class ‘Manha de Carnaval’, (later released as ‘A Day in the Life of a Fool’); and he shared in the writing for the award-winning film “Black Orpheus” which heralded the entrance of the bossa nova era. His song ‘The Gentle Rain’ has become a standard in the jazz repertoire, and he has recorded with musicians such as Sian Getz, Stanley Clarke, Ron Carter, Airto, and Jobim, Just to mention a few. Yet in 1971, enjoying a successful career in film-scoring, recording, and concerts in the U.S., he elected 10 return to Brazil. Since that time he has appeared mainly in Europe ‘and the Far East while his records have become collectors’ items in the U.S., fetching $40 or more each. During a recent trip to New York, Mr.Bonfa played some of his recent recordings and talked about his career as well as his present activities which include experiments with the ‘Ovation classic electric, electronic effects, and a new reper- toire he is composing for solo classic guitar. When and how did you first become involved with the guitar? My father, who was Italian and very musical, played the guitar. Though what he played was very simple, it was certainly an influence. There were other kids in the nelgh- bourhood who took lessons from the local teacher, so when I was 11 years old | told my father I wanted to learn. He told me he would buy an instrument under the condi- tion that if I didn’t demonstrate progress after three months I would give it up. I gather you showed progress? ‘Yes; and after a couple of months I told my father that I needed another teacher because there was so much more I felt I could learn that this local teacher couldn't show me. But we lived in Santa Cruz, aboiat 2% hours by train from 19io, and there was no one else to study with in that small village. However, some eight or nine months later I had the good fortune to be at a party in Rio where I met Isaias Savio, the great Uruguayan classic guitarist. 1 played for him and he invited me to become one of his students. How did you find studying with Savio? It is thanks (0 him that T acquired a good classical tech- nique on the guitar. 1 studied with him about two years, and it was a tremendous experience. I enjoyed the recitals we students gave with groups of guitars playing classical music; but I had fallen in love with Brazilian popular music and began working in that direction, applying the classic technique to popular music. Did Savio disapprove of this? No. He had told me that I had the potential, if I would dedicate myself to it, to become one of the greatest classi- cal guitacists, However, some years Tater when T hed hed some success as a popular guitarist he said that he liked very much the things I was doing with the guitar. I felt very ratified to hear it How did you begin to develop your own personal style of playing? This began very early, in my teens. I remember one very. important experience of playing an old 78 rpm record of the Glen Miller Band doing ‘In the Mood’. Listening to ll the parts of the big band: the bass, the accompaniment, the melody, all joined; began me thinking I could do this on my instrument. So I worked it out on the guitar and there began my basic approach to playing. It was at this time also that I developed the percussion techniques I became known for later. What were your early experiences as a professional? Oh, I played clubs and dances and so forth. In 1946, however, I met the great Brazilian guitarist Garoto who was at Radio Nacional in Rio and he introduced me there where T began working. I also worked at Radio Tupi. Shortly afterward I became part of a very successful vocal group called the ‘Quitandinha Serenaders’ which toured throughout Brazil. I sang with the group and also did guitar solo numbers. We were scheduled to go to Paris and play, but contract problems prevented it. A littl later I left them to go off on my own as a soloist. My replacement in the ‘Serenaders’ was a young man named Joao Gilberto. Why did you decide 10 go solo at this point? There were several factors that occurred at the same time. The cancellation of the Paris contract was very disappoint- ing and also at the same time my father died, which left me feeling very lost in life. Besides this, I just wanted to bea guitar soloist Were you composing at this time? Yes. I had been composing for the guitar, and about the time of the ‘Serenaders’ I began writing both the music and lyrics. Dick Farney was the first to record one of my songs, “Ranchinko de Pitha’, which was released in Sao Paulo in 1951, I had another song, ‘Cancao de Vaqueiro’, which was a success, but ‘De Cigarro em Cigarro’, in 1953, was my first big hit. Were you being influenced by American music at this time? You know it’s funny, but I was always strongly influenced by American music and I liked ail styles. Sometimes I would get together with Gardto, who loved American jazz, and we would tune in the short wave radio to American stations and listen to the big bands together. I also had a strong desire to travel to the U.S. and to know this country. How did your career in the U.S. get its start? I travelled to New York in 1957; alone; I didn’t speak any more English than “hello” and “thank you". I didn't know anyonein New York. After living in a hotel there for about three months, I was invited to a party by Julius Glanzer, the representative of Cartier Jewellers in New 20 York, whom I had met. It was fantastic. There were many actors and celebrities there, oh, Arthur Rubenstein, Natalie Wood, Bob Wagner, Elsa Maxwell, to mention only a few. So Mr.Glanzer had improvised an area like a stage there and I played my guitar for these people and they were very impressed. After I finished a woman came up to me and started talking. Of course I couldn't understand anything; but with the help of a Brazilian jour- nalist I realised I had been offered a job by Mary Martin in her touring show. So this was the beginning of my career in the U.S. We toured 60 American cities doing pieces that Mary had done in Broadway shows and I did numbers with her, the orchestra, and was a featured soloist. Fortunately the reaction of the American public to my playing was very enthusiastic Did Americans find your playing style unusual? ‘Yes; and now this reminds me of one time I was playing in a music store in New York shortly after I arrived. 1 was playing ‘Sombolero’ and there was this fellow there looking intensely at my hands trying to figure out how L put all the parts together. It turned out to be Tal Farlow, the great jazz guitarist, and he paid me a great compliment about my style of playing. He was amazed at how I kept the bass, accompaniment, and melody all going at the same time, plus a percussive effect that sounds like brushes on a snare drum. Didn't the filming of “Black Orpheus” happen at about this time? That occurred when I returned to Rio during a two month ‘break in the Mary Martin tour. Actually I had been the theatre orchestra guitarist in the play ‘Orfeu da Conceicao’ from which the movie sereen play*was written and had written one song, ‘Rencho de Orfeu’, for the theatre version. The play was a fantastic success in Rio with most of the music written by Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. During my return to Rio, Marcel Camus, the French direc- tor, was there looking for music for the sound track and he asked me to write for it. 1 improvised a song for him, but he dicn’t like it. So 1 went back and wrote another which he said he liked. Then I told him: ‘Listen, you're wrong! ‘The first is the one you want.”” So the Iyricist Antonio Maria was there and he quickly made up some lines. The people there on the set began singing it and it seemed to work very well. Camus then accepted it, though reluc- tantly, The song was ‘Manka de Carnaval’. which became an international hit. 1 wrote some other music for the film including ‘Samba de Orfew’ that comes near the end of the picture. The rest was written by Jobim and Vinicius, Shortly afterwards the film had won at the Cannes Film Festival, and ‘Manha’ was the number one song through: out Europe. Were you a performer in the first bossa nova concert in Carnegie Halt in 1962? Thad been working in Germany with Caterina Valente at that time and arrived in New York just in time to be in- cluded in the programme. It was a long affair and many, many players; among them Sergio Mendes, Jobim, Bola Sete, and Carlos Lyra, were there. The New York Times gave me a very good review for my participation. During the show, Nick Vanoff, Perry Como’s producer, heard me and invited me to become a regular on the “Perry Como TV Show" Is this about the time you recorded with Stan Getz on Verve Records? In 1962 Creed Taylor, then a producer at Verve, asked me to record with Getz, and we did “‘Jazz Samba Encore’’on which Jobim played the piano, and my former wife, Maria Toledo, sang. (V-68523). T revorded another record for Verve shortly afierwards: “Luiz Bonfa Sings and Plays Bossa Nova’”. (V-68522). Wasn't “Jazz Samba Encore” released shortly before the “Getz and Gilberto” record on Verve which was such a bighit witi “The Girl from Ipanema”; the song that many {feel began the bossa nova “era”? in the U.S.? Right. And looking back I think that even though the record sold well, if Maria had only been singing in English rather than Portugese, ‘Jazz Samba Encore”? might have been the big hit! So, during the “Bossa Nova Era” you were living in and based out of New York? Yes. From 1957 to 1970 I was living in New York and actively composing, concertising, doing. music for films, and so forth, In 1971 I moved back to Brazil. What prompted you to do so? You know I got very tired of all the travelling and intense activity. Even in my younger years, I had always been one to take it easy. It's not laziness. but what I would call a more sane life-style as an artist. This is my way both as a professional musician and as @ person. So many artists be: come successful and maintain a frantic pace. Then you get, anxiety and it begins to obstruct you. So it’s important to take it easy. It doesn’t mean being lazy: just maintaining a healthy pace so you don’t go crazy. So I decided to return, to Brazil where things are slower and there is so much nature and physical beauty. What was it like returning to Brazil as an internationally successful composer and guitarist? The attitude towards artists in Brazil is very different than here in the U.S. Things are very provincial and political and there is a great deal of envy mixed with destructive criticism there. Here if you are dressed in rags, but have talent and can play, you are respected as an artist. And if you are dressed to the nines but have no ability, all the clothes won't help you. But in Brazil there is often a lot of, criticism made about unessential things like whether your shoe-strings are tied or if you have a hole in your shirt- sleeve, rather than concentrating on the ability of the artist.'So it is a negative environment for an artist. Then your artistic activities were curtailed in Brazil? Somewhat; although back in 1960-61 I did a very popular ‘TY show in Brazil called “O Violao do Bonfa”’, (“Bonfa’s Guitar”) and I’ve done some other performing there as well since my return. What has been the emphasis of your musical activities since 1970? Tve concentrated on composing, especially more serious compositions for solo guitar. I've gotten into developing a more descriptive, romantic style of music which I was into when I recorded a record for RCA called “‘Introspection””, (FSP-297), released primarily in Europe in 1973. I have continued to concertize internationally, although not as frequently as before. In the early 70s I did concerts in Ger- many, Rome, and Amsterdam. In 1974 I played a concert, with Dave Brubeck and Ramsey Lewis at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In °76 I did a televised concert in Munich, and in °78 I represented the Brazilian govern- ment on a six-city tour of Australia in collaboration with Don Burrows, the fine Australian flute and sax player and George Golla, a wonderful jazz guitarist. That tour resulted in an album I am especially proud of entitled “‘Bonfé, Burrows, Brazil”, (Cherry Pie Rees. CPF 1046), What was your role in the development of the bossa nova? T would say it was the ‘batida de violao” (guitar accompani- ment style), of Joao Gilberto which signified the creation of the bossa nova. But Joao has said that he was heavily influenced by my playing and has cited examples of my recordings where he told me I was doing bossa nova. Really it was the creation of @ number of musicians in Rio about 1957, people like Jobim, Baden Powell, Johnny Alf, Lyra, and s0 on. It is a style strongly identified with the guitar, is it nor? Very definitely. And I think this is because the subtlety of the rhythmic patterns of the bossa nova sound so good plucked on the nylon strings. That is, in my opinion, the guitar is the proper instrument for that kind of beat. Bossa nova is strongly influenced by the samba, no? Yes, very much by the samba, but there is also a little from the bolero where you get the *bosse nova clave” rhythm, Was Garéto o bis influence on you musically? Very much so, He was the first one to explain how to read chord symbols so I could play on radio. He also influenced my conception of harmony. When we played together I paid very close attention to what he was doing. Garoto was areatly influenced by American jazz and he played not only classic guitar but 14 stringed instruments in all. He made me a better musician and he was also a fabulous human being. It was a great tragedy that he died so young, (in 1955 at age 39). Was Garéto playing bossa nova? No. He was playing in the forms popular at that time such 1 the chéro and samba. This was the time of Carmen Miranda’s popularity and he played with her. But had he lived he would have been one of the greatest of the bossa nova because the harmony he developed on the guitar, blended with a later rhythmic conception drawn from the samba, is what the bossa nova is What is your playing technique in terms of the left and right hands? Iwas taught in the traditional classic school of Tarrega by Isaias Savio. Therefore I studied the works of Miguel Llobet, Boccarini, Carcassi, ete. So my right hand plays in the classie finger style, but my hand position is not of the old school where the fingers are perpendicular to. the strings, Rather, the right hand is at a more natural angle to the strings. This is more comfortable and incidentally was also the position favoured by Savio. I never used any method books although I studied the set of daily exercises Savio gave all his students. ‘The basic idea of the finger strokes is to get a smooth, non-aggressive sound. There are, of course, times when you need to he aggressive, but the basic tone is round. The left hand also follows the classic positions. I think the American jazz guitarists are the strongest in their development of the left hand with their use of the pick to get great speed with scale passages. It’s interesting t0 notice that many Amecican players, especially the younger ones, are now dedicating themselves to leaming the right hand finger style. The pick is very limiting and it would be 4 great step forward for the guitar to see the American left hand jazz concept combined with the Brazilian and classic right hand techniques. What is the role of improvisation in your playing? 1s not the most important, and V'm very careful with my improvising as 1 don’t have a great ability in this area. It’s all pretty spontaneous. I'm not always thinking in-terms of what chords are coming next and what scales or substitu- tions I can make on the changes. And using the right hand as Ido | can conceive the guitar like a piano, though slightly more limited in scope. The basic idea is to have an independent bass line and lots of voice movement in the chords underlying the melody. This way you avoid the danger of playing everything in the monotonous pattern of “pass note, chord, bass, chord”” and by creating different chord inversions with an active bass line you also escape imited variety of standard chord forms many guitarisis, in mind that the Brazilian, the South American guitarists in general, gets a great deal of help by using the open bass strings. He stays mostly in the keys of E, A, and D when he learns to accompany, and using these keys gives him an advantage when he improvises. The Americans often use the keys where you cannot play open strings such as Bb and Eb for example. This has its advan- tages too, of course. You have more latitude in modula- tion, but you are limited in the patterns of your azcom- paniment. In my improvising I try to combine both of a