Boris Gaquere: acoustic guitar
Renato Martins: percussion (Udu and cajon)
Boris Gaquere, Belgian guitarist, and Renato Martins, Brazilian percussionist met in Brussels in 2004, during Martins’ first stay in Belgium.
Boris Gaquere’s approach to the traditional “Brazilian” classical guitar style, influenced by his studies with Odair Assad, allows him to tour worldwide. Renato Martins’ creativity and virtuosity with percussion instruments such as the Cajon and especially the UDU (clay pot), has made him to be regarded as Brazil’s percussion reinventor.
For obvious reasons, they soon realized they had a similar approach to music and decided to team up. Their repertoire, in addition to their own compositions, contains a number of Brazilian pieces by guitarists and composers of renown (Baden-Powell, Paulo Bellinati, Marco Pereira, etc). The set is a musical festival of instrumental rhythms and colours. From 2005, they were guests at the Brno Guitar Festival in the Czech Republic and played selected appearances in Belgium, France, Czech Republic, Poland, Brazil, Argentina and Taiwan.
"Tempo Feliz" consecrates this union. As this recording clearly shows, they meet in perfect harmony and emphasize the bond they share between virtuosity and swing of the Brazilian rhythms. The album was released in 2006 on Mogno Music, a Belgian Jazz, Fusion & Roots specialist recording label Mogno Music.
Students of the Academy of Meise will open the show. Young talented piano players, under de guidance of Karin Peynsaert, will play works of Brazilian Masters like Heitor Villa-Lobos, Guerra Peixe ...
"Tempo Feliz is a great recording, bare, sober, incisive, full of life and rythm. The material is written and arranged by contemporary Brazilian guitarists and composers (Paulo Bellinati, Marco Pereira). Also to be found, music from Baden Powell and Lúis Bonfá arranged by the great Sérgio Assad. There is in Boris Gaquere, Belgian guitarist who proposes his own music imbued with the colours of Brazil, a marvellous control of the guitar, a beautiful essential rythmic sprightliness for this demanding repertoire. He finds in Renato Martins, straight out of São Paulo, an ideal partner for these melodies."
Philip Catherine