Laurindo Almeida was a Brazilian guitarist who was active in the USA after 1940. He worked in Hollywood as a studio musician and has played the guitar part in many movies. For his record Girl von Ipanema he won a Grammy in 1964. Laurindo Almeida is also seen as the father of the Bossa-Nova. He played together with the Modern Jazz Quartet, but he has also arranged many classical works for the guitar.
I had several books with sheet music by Laurindo Almeida for years, and I have recently worked on some of the pieces. Almeida arranged some famous Jazz Standards for the classical guitar, like Blue Moon,Over the Rainbow, Mamselle, My Funny Valentine – some great arrangements for guitar.
This is an English Air by Almeida in my version. I have found other videos of this tune which obviously play it from a different score which contains some errors. I think that my version must be the original version of this piece.
I have recently compiled youtube videos with recordings by Laurindo Almeida and Works composed or arranged by Almeida and played by other guitarist in two large playlists.
Playlist 1 – Original Recordings by Laurindo Almeida
Playlist 2 – Works by Laurindo Almeida played by other Guitarists
Additional Information
You can download a one hour podcast on the website of Fabio Zanon
More Links
- Link Collection Laurindo Almeida
- Wikipedia über Laurindo Almeida
- Discography of Laurindo Almeido at discogs
- Website for Laurindo Almeida
You can find several editions of Almeidas works for the guitar. This is a large compilation of solo works which might be a good edition to start with (Amazon partnerlink):