The Brazilian guitarist, André Geraissati, passed away on November 19. He was 74.
Often wistful and atmospheric in tone, Geraissati’s music blends elements of jazz and Brazilian folk music. He collaborated with such artists as Grupo D’Alma, Egberto Gismonti, Bobby McFerrin, and Wynton Marsalis. From 1979 to 1985, he performed as part of the guitar trio, Grupo D’Alma.
Geraissati’s 1988 solo album, DADGAD, explores an alternate tuning, as expressed in the title, in which some of the guitar’s six strings are tuned down a whole tone. It allows for new possibilities in chord spacings and voicing. In his review of the album, Diego Olivas writes,
Tune down and immediately you feel/hear the inherent modality/resonances in your normally rigid instrument. On DADGAD, André Geraissati tunes down to misremember phrasing he grew up learning, simply letting the improvisatory scale of this new tuning lead him where he had to go.
Here is the album’s opening track, Vento:
Recordings
- Geraissati: DADGAD Amazon
Featured Image: photograph by Marcelo Davera