André Geraissati comes to terms with the past
Guitarist releases three albums recorded in the 80s on CD, and wishes for a comeback
Carlos Calado
19/03/2001
After having spent most of the last decade working as a record producer of instrumental music, guitarist/songwriter André Geraissati, from São Paulo, is decided to go for his career all over again. Planning an album with Egberto Gismonti, he reveals that the three albums released on Warner along the 80s are getting CD prints. Solo (1987), Dad Gad (1988) and 79 89 (1989) are getting new covers, too, now that they're coming out on the label Tom Brasil.
"I still think they are quite original, but I don't play like that, no more, the attitude is different. I'm less into technique, today", he says, summing up his impression on the three albums. "I have a different posture. Now I'll even use old strings on my guitar. In the past, I would have brand new strings made special for me. It was boring", Andre says, who exlained the different tunings on his guitar on the original Solo cover.
Geraissati quit playing between 1995 and 1999, not because he was fed up with the business, but because Tom Brasil, the record/gig company that he fouded with Solon Siminovich in 1991 was demanding full attention. "We didn't expect it to go so well", he says, pointing out that Tom Brasil has put out 50 instrumental music CDs and organized hundreds of shows around the country.
Renovation is missing
On the other hand, he regrets the disappearance of other labels dedicated to instrumental music, companies that did not face the changes in the market during the 90s. "The record industry changed a lot along the past decade. Sometimes I wonder if instrumental music didn't restrain itself into a formula, while the market was evolving", he goes, while mentioning a certain lack of renovation in the genre. "I have been listening to brilliant instrumentalists, such as André Mehmari, Célio Barros and Hamilton de Holanda. But I haven't heard anything that is essentially different", he observes, comparing the new generation to that of the 80s.
The little space left for instrumental music in the Brazilian market does not distress him, though. "There will always be mainstream, but there is also local, besides global. There will always be space for instrumental music", geraissati claims, using Pat Matheny as a good example. "To me, he's the Ray Conniff of modern times. He has a formula that pleases everybody".
About to turn 50 years-old, Andre reveals that his ancient project to record an album with orchestra arrangements by Egberto Gismonti might finally come true. "I talked to him, a few days ago, and we both want it. We've been having conversations on the subject for the past 6 years. We just have to figure how to make it feasible. That's what I want to do, now."
"I still think they are quite original, but I don't play like that, no more, the attitude is different. I'm less into technique, today", he says, summing up his impression on the three albums. "I have a different posture. Now I'll even use old strings on my guitar. In the past, I would have brand new strings made special for me. It was boring", Andre says, who exlained the different tunings on his guitar on the original Solo cover.
Geraissati quit playing between 1995 and 1999, not because he was fed up with the business, but because Tom Brasil, the record/gig company that he fouded with Solon Siminovich in 1991 was demanding full attention. "We didn't expect it to go so well", he says, pointing out that Tom Brasil has put out 50 instrumental music CDs and organized hundreds of shows around the country.
Renovation is missing
On the other hand, he regrets the disappearance of other labels dedicated to instrumental music, companies that did not face the changes in the market during the 90s. "The record industry changed a lot along the past decade. Sometimes I wonder if instrumental music didn't restrain itself into a formula, while the market was evolving", he goes, while mentioning a certain lack of renovation in the genre. "I have been listening to brilliant instrumentalists, such as André Mehmari, Célio Barros and Hamilton de Holanda. But I haven't heard anything that is essentially different", he observes, comparing the new generation to that of the 80s.
The little space left for instrumental music in the Brazilian market does not distress him, though. "There will always be mainstream, but there is also local, besides global. There will always be space for instrumental music", geraissati claims, using Pat Matheny as a good example. "To me, he's the Ray Conniff of modern times. He has a formula that pleases everybody".
About to turn 50 years-old, Andre reveals that his ancient project to record an album with orchestra arrangements by Egberto Gismonti might finally come true. "I talked to him, a few days ago, and we both want it. We've been having conversations on the subject for the past 6 years. We just have to figure how to make it feasible. That's what I want to do, now."