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Richard Jernigan -> RE: RIP Roland dyens (Nov. 2 2016 20:40:44)
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I only heard Dyens live once, at the Cuernavaca International Guitar Festival in 2000. There was a mic and a pretty good sound system in the relatively dead converted movie theater. During the first number Dyens motioned to the sound man to boost the gain a couple of times, until he was a fair amount louder than most amplified classical players. You could hear all the nuance of his tone and dynamics, and appreciate the security of his technique.
I remember three pieces from that night. He played his own arrangements, very virtuosic, but smoothly rhythmic.
He played Baden Powell's "Berimbau" which mimics the instrument that accompanies the Brazilian dance/martial art Capoeira.
He played "Around Midnight" by Thelonious Monk, in a profoundly moving way.
He played Tom Jobim's "A Felicidade" which I first heard in the movie classic "Orfeu Negro" ["Black Orpheus"].
Lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes:
http://lyricstranslate.com/en/felicidade-happiness.html
In the last scene Orfeu has died, but the little boy he was teaching to play takes Orfeu's guitar and fulfills the daily task of playing the sun up out of the Atlantic ocean..the ancient Greek myth of the reincarnation of Orpheus played out in the favela of the Morro da Cabra in Rio de Janeiro.
The end of the scene, with children dancing to Luiz Bonfa's "Samba de Orfeu," played by the little boy, always brings tears to my eyes.
The next night Dyens and I happened to be walking out of the concert at the same time. I said to him, "When you played 'Berimbau' I thought Baden was about to pop out of your guitar." Dyens smiled.
I added, "I didn't think anyone but a Brazilian could play samba like you did on "A Felicidade."
Dyens smiled again and said, "Maybe I was Brazilian in a former life..."
I went to Rio de Janeiro the next day. A couple of days later I sat on the cliff of Morro da Cabra, high above the skyscrapers of Ipanema, watching the great flaming red-gold ball of the sun rise majestically out of the blue Atlantic...with Dyens' playing sounding in my head.
RNJ
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