Artist: Laurendo Almeida
Laurendo Almeida (September 2, 1917 – July 26, 1995) was a Brazilian guitarist and composer in classical, jazz, and Latin music. He and Bud Shank were pioneers in the creation of bossa nova. Almeida was the first guitarist to receive Grammy Awards for both classical and jazz performances. His discography encompasses more than a hundred recordings over five decades.
Almeida was first introduced to the jazz public as a featured guitarist with the Stan Kenton band in the late 1940s, during the height of its success. According to author Michael Sparke, Almeida and his fellow Kenton bandmember drummer Jack Costanzo "endowed the music of Progressive Jazz with a persuasive Latin flavor, and the music is enriched by their presence."
Almeida's recording career enjoyed auspicious early success with the 1953 recordings now called Brazilliance No. 1 and No. 2 with fellow Kenton alumnus Bud Shank, bassist Harry Babasin, and drummer Roy Harte on the World Pacific label (originally entitled "The Laurindo Almeida Quartet featuring Bud Shank"). Widely regarded as "landmark" recordings, Almeida and Shank's combination of Brazilian and jazz rhythms (which Almeida labeled "samba-jazz") presaged the fusion of Latin and jazz.
Almeida's classical solo recording career on Capitol Records began in 1954 with The Guitar Music of Spain. Almeida made a series of highly successful classical recordings produced by Robert E. Myers. Among Almeida's notable classical recordings is an album widely considered to be the first classical crossover album, the 1958 Grammy winner Duets with the Spanish Guitar with mezzo-soprano Salli Terri and flutist Martin Ruderman. The recording was nominated for two Grammy Awards and won for Best Classical Engineering for Sherwood Hall III at the first Grammy Awards ceremony.
Of Almeida's five career Grammys, four were awarded in classical categories. His classical recording discography also includes the debut recordings of two major guitar works, Heitor Villa-Lobos' Guitar Concerto and Radamés Gnattali's Concerto de Copacabana.
In 1964, Almeida again expanded his recording repertoire by joining forces with the Modern Jazz Quartet on Collaboration (Atlantic Records), which combined classical with jazz, called "chamber jazz." Almeida also toured with the MJQ, both in the 1960s and again in the 1990s.
In addition to his recording achievements, Almeida continued his work with the film studios throughout his career. He composed the complete film scores for ten motion pictures and portions for hundreds of others.
In the 1970s, Almeida reunited with Bud Shank, forming The L.A. Four with Ray Brown and Chuck Flores (later Shelly Manne and then Jeff Hamilton). From 1974 to 1982, the L.A. Four toured internationally and recorded a series of albums for Concord Jazz, including The L.A. Four Scores!, an acclaimed live recording from the 1974 Concord Jazz Festival.
His guitar trio, Guitarjam, with Larry Coryell and Sharon Isbin played Carnegie Hall in 1988. In the 1990s, Almeida toured again with the Modern Jazz Quartet.
Further information about Laurendo Almeida is found at LaurendoAlmeida.com.
This content was excerpted from the Wikipedia article, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurindo_Almeida, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
Laurindo Almeida plays One Note Samba
Laurendo Almeida: Videos
Laurindo Almeida Nov. 1989 TV concert broadcast, San Diego
Modern Jazz Quartet & Laurindo Almeida