Charles Carlini, a well-known music impresario and avid guitar enthusiast brought together an International Who’s Who of guitar virtuosic talent spanning multiple genres of world music with the inaugural Guitar Masters Festival. The event was held at the Baha’i Center in Greenwich Village from April 25-29.
Carlini is also the concert promoter and curator of the Guitar Masters Series, a precursor to the Guitar Masters Festival, where experimental jazz guitarist Ben Monder’s performed with Theo Bleckman at Zinc Bar last October.
April 25: Juanito Pascual
An American-born Flamenco Guitar Phenom
Juanito Pascual is a renowned Minneapolis-native flamenco guitarist and composer acclaimed for his innovative fusion of flamenco with jazz, rock and world music. The Boston Globe has called him a “Flamenco Phenom” citing his sound to be “a truly organic blend of masterful traditional and contemporary flamenco with influences ranging from Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead to Miles Davis and J.S. Bach.”
Pascual opened the festival with an invigorating one hour 15 minute performance of traditional music with his long-time percussionist Jose Moreno and flamenco dancer Paloma Rios. He later played an extended version of the Beatles’ classic “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” which stayed true to the original melody while incorporating a “flamenco fire” to the performance.
What I loved most was the impromptu nature of the guitar’s cadences and rhythmic interplay between the wooden nylon-string guitar and the wild rapid dance movements of Paloma Rios.
Pascual has released three albums since 2003. He is also an environmental activist who has been involved with musical projects for the Panama Rain Forest.
April 27: Thu Le
Globally Acclaimed Classical Guitar Goddess
I was not expecting to attend Thu Le’s concert until the night prior when I became absorbed with her classical guitar de force video of “Vals Venuzuolano No. 3” by Antonio Lauro which absolutely blew me away.
Thu Le is a globally acclaimed classical guitarist born in Vietnam and now residing in Bahrain. A true prodigy, Thu Le gave her first public performance in Vietnam at age five. She was accepted into the prestigious National Conservatory of Music in Hanoi, becoming the youngest-ever student at just seven years old.
Thu Le performed highly challenging pieces from Spain, Vietnam, North America, etc., such as “Introduction y Rondo Op. 2 No. 2 ( Dinisio Aguado),” “Lới Lơ (Traditional tune/ Hai Thoai),” “Tango en Skai (Roland Dyens),” “Porro- from Suite Colombiana No. 2 (Gentil Montana)” and Cavalcade (Mathias Duplessy).”
April 27: Badi Assad
A True Musical Genius
Brazilian singer guitarist Badi Assad is a truly unique musical genius. This isn’t just lip service. One would be hard pressed to find any musician in the world who can duplicate what Badi does!
She is a world-renowned musician who comes from a famous musical family. Her brothers are the Duo Assad, two classical guitar legends. Essentially what Pele is to soccer is what the Duo Assad is to classical guitar music.
Although she was trained in the conservatory and won many guitar competitions, early on Badi realized classical guitar was musically too confining for her. She discovered her true voice in World Music and spent many years developing a unique style of independence. This difficult style incorporates simultaneous playing, singing, and percussive drumming – all either on or while playing the guitar.
In other words, Badi became a one-woman band! She proved this midway through her concert, by performing her highly intriguing experimental song “Vrap” from her first 1994 album “Solo.”
This is not only an amazing compositional piece, it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to play and perform, demanding swift fingerstyle guitar arpeggios all over the neck while independently drumming complex off-beat rhythms on the guitar’s body and simultaneously singing two different parts.
No one in the world does it quite like Badi!
To view performances, please visit guitarmastersfestival.com
Read this article where I originally wrote it in The Village View:
________________________________________________________________________________
KAJU ROBERTO is an accomplished musician, singer/ songwriter, journalist, and an award-winning producer. He is the artist Rad Jet on Spotify.