Laurindo's Guitar (2020)

This is the story of how in the year 2000, I acquired my favorite guitarist’s favorite guitar. It is a six-string Spanish classical guitar made by Felix Manzanero and once owned by Laurindo Almeida.

I was standing in Laurindo’s kitchen listening to his wife Didi telling stories. Laurindo had been sick with leukemia and out of kindness to Clint Eastwood did him a special favor. Almeida played the Manzanero on the sound track for Eastwood’s 1992 movie The Unforgiven. Didi went on to say that Eastwood had popped his head into Almeida’s recording booth and deadpanned “don’t play too good, Laurindo.”

The feeling of epiphany at that moment was inescapable. I had never forgotten the gorgeous sound of the guitar on that soundtrack. And now I was astonished that I was not only buying that guitar but also, that for about four years, I had been listening to, studying, and playing the music of the person who had performed that beautiful haunting melody.

All I knew while I sat in the theater reading the credits after the movie was that I loved that tone. I didn’t know in 1992 that Laurindo Almeida, one of Brazil's most famous musicians, was a prolific composer and arranger and one of the most brilliant guitarists of the 20th century. I didn’t know that he had won five Grammy awards and was the first musician to win Grammys in both classical guitar and jazz guitar. I didn’t know that Almeida had played on over eight hundred Hollywood soundtracks. I didn’t know who Laurindo Almeida was and I didn’t even know Brazilian jazz existed.

My acquisition of the Manzanero guitar started with a failed attempt to purchase some of Almeida’s guitar arrangements from his Brazilliance music publishing company. Because funds were tight, I had cancelled my order to by $60.00 worth of music. Didi sent me a post card inquiring why. I decided to call and tell her that at the time I simply couldn’t afford it. At some point during our conversation, I told Didi that I had learned that Almeida’s working guitar was built by Felix Manzenero. She told me that the Manzanero was Laurindo’s favorite guitar and added, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. Laurindo told me not to sell it to a dealer!”

The next thing I knew I was talking my wife into buying Almeida’s guitar. After much discussion around the kitchen table that night we settled on a crazy plan to borrow the money to buy it. Twenty years later we now laugh about the day when my wonderful and amazing wife who almost always supports insane ideas agreed to have me buy a round trip plane ticket to L.A. and acquire my favorite guitarist’s favorite guitar.

In recent years much of Laurindo Almeida’s music has been published, mostly by Mel Bay. However, some never made it into their catalog. I was fortunate to have been able to purchase music directly from Laurindo’s own publishing company, Brazilliance. This is how I became acquainted with his wife Didi who was still running the company after his death. The music on this album, written by Almeida in 1972, is most certainly out of print and to my knowledge has never been recorded.

Nothing captures the essence of the Brazilian sound better than these five beautiful duets. You will hear in this rare music the suave, syncopated, and tastefully dissonant style of popular Brazilian samba and choro. So, get ready to kick back, relax, pour yourself some wine, and enjoy some exquisitely beautiful guitar music. It has been an amazing experience to record this music on the Manzanero.

Bob Fournier, December 2020

Bob’s guitar was made by Felix Manzanero in 1968. Laurindo Almeida was the original owner. Cover photo by Donna Fournier. Recorded at Milk Boy Studios, Philadelphia, Fall 2020 by Cody Cichowski, sound recording engineer. CD designed and manufactured by Mirror Image Media.