Odair Assad

Last Updated (Wednesday, 17 June 2009 20:08) Written by Jacob Friday, 13 February 2009 07:58

For more than forty years Brazilian guitarist Odair Assad has been concertizing worldwide with his brother Sergio, forming an exceptional guitar duo.

In 1998, "temporarily absenting himself from the celebrated duo, Odair Assad reveals himself to be a soloist of awesome talents, which is no less than observation has always suggested" wrote jornalist Colin Cooper about Malcolm Arnold's short Serenade for guitar and strings recorded with Leo Brouwer conducting the Orquesta de Cordoba (GHA  Records).

One year later, according to the same Colin Cooper reviewing the album Fuga y misterio, "Odair Assad has one of the most fluent left hands (he has) seen in a guitarist : seemingly attached to the fingerboard, it perfroms its function without obvious effort and to the maximum musical effect.  This CD gives him the chance to shine in solo splendour for once".About the same album, the Italian review Seicorde underlines Odair's spontaneous musical intention, his easy instrumental approach as well as his talent in playing in perfect tune with any partner, his brother Sergio, cellist Edmond Carlier or violinist Fernando Suarez Paz.

If Odair sometimes had in mind to play solo, his great friend American guitarmaker Thomas Humphrey was convinced that he had to do it and, in early 2008, he started working personally on the project.  Nobody would ever imagine that Tom would pass away in April of the same year: Odair then decided to give his first solo recital, two months later, in New York, as the most sincere homage of an artist to the loving memory of his best friend.