Carlos Barbosa-Lima

The Brazilian acoustic guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima embraced an expansive repertoire that wove classical forms together with jazz and an array of Latin musical traditions across his concert appearances and studio work. He further distinguished himself through his talent for crafting guitar-specific adaptations of existing pieces. Although he never confined himself to jazz performance, those adaptations resonated strongly within jazz circles and drew a devoted following from that audience. His recording journey began with the 1958 release of Dez Dedos Magicos Num Violão De Ouro, the opening chapter of a career that would stretch beyond six decades. Figures such as composer Alberto Ginastera soon started composing pieces expressly for him. Onstage he shared bills with jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd and formed an acquaintance with songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim while the latter resided in New York. The well-received Plays The Music Of Antonio Carlos Jobim & George Gershwin appeared in 1982. Classical techniques underpinned his transcriptions, which he fused onto material from other idioms. He sustained his creative output deep into later life, issuing Manisero in 2021.

Born Antonio Carlos Ribeiro Barbosa-Lima in São Paulo, Brazil, on December 17, 1944, he received his earliest guitar instruction at age seven from his father, who passed along the knowledge gained during his own lessons. Recognized early for his promise, the young musician was presented to composer and guitarist Luiz Bonfá, who in turn directed him to classical guitarist Isaias Savio. Barbosa-Lima made his recital debut in São Paulo at twelve and, the next year, played in Rio de Janeiro while also appearing on Brazilian television.

At fourteen he entered the studio for the first time, cutting Dez Dedos Magicos Num Violão De Ouro for the Chantecler subsidiary of RCA in 1958. Throughout the 1960s he focused on classical repertoire by Brazilian and other Latin composers, as heard on 1962’s Imortal Catullo. Two further albums emerged in 1966: Álbum De Modinhas and Concerto em Viola Brasileira. Extensive tours took him across South, Central, and North America, culminating in his United States debut in Washington during 1967. Later that same year he performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall; that concert, together with a subsequent Town Hall appearance two years after the release of 1969’s Concerto En Modo Frigio De Eduardo Grau, attracted the interest of international concert promoters. Composers including Argentina’s Alberto Ginastera began writing works tailored to his strengths. Following the 1970 release of In A Scarlatti Guitar Recital on ABC, he served on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh between 1974 and 1978.

Accepting a teaching post at the Manhattan School of Music prompted his relocation to New York in 1981. By then he had already produced numerous guitar arrangements, several of them, such as his version of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, carrying a jazz inflection. Performances with Charlie Byrd led to an introduction to Antonio Carlos Jobim, then based in New York. Both musicians admired the classical foundation of Barbosa-Lima’s work, and Byrd facilitated his contract with Concord Records. The first installment of a trilogy devoted to Brazilian and American composers appeared that year as Plays The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim & George Gershwin on the Concord Concerto imprint. He followed it a year later with Carlos Barbosa-Lima Plays The Entertainer & Selected Works By Scott Joplin and completed the series in 1984 with Plays The Music Of Luiz Bonfá And Cole Porter. The 1985 collection Impressions gathered brief pieces by European, Brazilian, Latin, and American composers.

Although he seldom improvised, Barbosa-Lima cultivated a loyal jazz audience and recorded multiple projects for Concord Picante. His label debut, the 1987 duet album Brazil, With Love with guitarist Sharon Isbin, presented works by Brazilian jazz figures including Jobim, Alfredo Vianna, and Ernesto Nazareth; Jobim contributed the liner notes. The pair returned in 1988 with Rhapsody In Blue / West Side Story. In 1989 Barbosa-Lima joined guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Charlie Byrd plus bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Michael Shapiro for Music of the Brazilian Masters, a survey of jazz and classical repertoire.

The 1991 co-billed project Chants for the Chief paired him with Brazilian composer, producer, vocalist, and percussionist Thiago de Mello, brother of the poet of the same name. Music of the Americas, issued in 1992, featured compositions by De Mello, Gershwin, and Dave Brubeck. The following year he released Ginastera’s Sonata, centering on the composer’s Sonata Op. 47 along with Escordio, Scherzo, Canto, and Finale, framed by additional works such as Albert Harris’s Concertino De California, For Guitar And String Quartet (with the San Francisco String Quartet), pieces by Radamés Gnattali (joined by pianist Patricia Briggs), De Mello, and Almeida. The widely praised set opened with Barbosa-Lima’s own “Las Abejas” and “Fabiniana.” His 1995 solo recital Twilight In Rio contained three original compositions created with Johnny Griggs and further selections by Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega, Agustín Barrios-Mangoré, and Paulo Bellinati. From Yesterday to Penny Lane: Contemporary Works for Solo Guitar and Guitar & Orchestra, released in 1996, incorporated Beatles material alongside works by Bobby Scott, Julio Sagreras, and Tárrega as well as originals written with Griggs. O Boto, his final album of the twentieth century, assembled pieces for guitar and orchestra alongside solo works, bookended by George Frederick Handel’s Harp Concerto in B flat major, Op.4/6, HWV 294 and Ernesto Cordero’s Concierto Antillano.

As Concord redirected its artistic direction in the early 2000s, Barbosa-Lima departed the label and issued two privately released collections, Mambo No. 5 and Natalia. He then signed with the newly established Zoho Music, an independent imprint initially oriented toward Latin jazz, and recorded the trio album Frenesí with percussionist Edgardo Aponte and bassist John Benitez in 2004, remaining with the company for the rest of his career. Months later the label issued Siboney, presenting both solo performances and quintet settings with bassist Eddie Gomez, saxophonist Dafnis Prieto, pianist Oscar Hernandez, and percussionist Pepe Torres. Carioca, another trio date featuring bassist Nilson Matta and percussionist Duduka Da Fonseca, followed in 2006.

Most of Barbosa-Lima’s professional life unfolded on tour routes spanning the Americas, Europe, and Asia, leaving him without a fixed residence from the turn of the century onward. He resumed recording in 2009 with Merengue, leading a trio through interpretations of the song form by composers such as Antonio Lauro, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Isaías Sávio, among others; harmonicist Hendrik Meurkens and percussionist Fonseca appeared as guests. The 2013 collaboration Leo Brouwer: Beatlerianas united him with the Cuban composer, guitarist Lawrence Del Casale, and the Havana String Quartet. Brouwer merged popular elements from the Western hemisphere with European idioms in a spirit akin to Villa-Lobos and Ginastera. The Beatlerianas could be viewed only in the broadest sense as arrangements of Beatles songs; some steered the material toward neo-Classic or neo-Baroque territory while others functioned as near-abstract textural explorations, yet none abandoned the original sources. Because of the guitarist’s constant touring schedule, capturing new studio performances proved challenging, prompting Zoho to release the archival sets The Chantecler Sessions, Vol. 1: 1958-1959 and The Chantecler Sessions, Vol. 2: 1960-1961 in 2015 and 2016, respectively; these combined his earliest solo readings of European composers with later interpretations of Latin and Brazilian works.

That same year he issued Plays Mason Williams, paying tribute to the composer of the 1968 hit “Classical Gas,” whose inventive handling of Western harmony and rhythm he had long admired. Barbosa-Lima presented his version of the piece as a twin-guitar arrangement with Del Casale and Fonseca on percussion, alongside readings of thirteen additional compositions by the American polymath. He toured in support of the album for nearly two years.

Delicado appeared in 2019. Joined again by Del Casale and Fonseca, Barbosa-Lima sought to evoke the natural beauty of Rio de Janeiro rather than its nightlife, employing traditional Brazilian rhythms and forms such as bossa, samba, and choro throughout the collection of Brazilian songs. The ensuing world tour ranked among his most successful until the COVID-19 pandemic halted it.

He returned to the studio for the 2021 release Manisero, recorded with German guitarist Johannes Tonio Kreusch and the latter’s brother, pianist Cornelius Claudio Kreusch. The album presented short pieces by well-known Latin, South American, and Brazilian composers including Bonfá, Jobim, Agustin Lara, Manuel Ponce, and Moisés Simons. Critics worldwide responded enthusiastically. It proved his final recording. Barbosa-Lima died of a heart attack in Paraty, Brazil, on February 23, 2022.