Charlie Haden & Egberto Gismonti
In Montreal

THE REVIEW

One is the greatest jazz bassist on the face of the earth. The other is the Brazilian ace who caresses the guitar or the piano keys like Pelé caressed the ball. One day in Montreal, in 1989, the two meet in a live performance. And that old fox Manfred Eicher, after quite a few years, in 2001, decides to pull this album out of his ECM hat - who knows why. What could come out if not pure magic?

Forget the Latin rhythms everyone knows. This is a different story. It's neither jazz nor Latin music, this one. And it's also well beyond the radical-chic music with the ECM seal. It's just music, that's it, sometimes it sweeps you away, sometimes it moves you, sometimes it makes you think. We start with Gismonti on the guitar. And just one touch is enough to understand that Egberto knows his way around both the six and twelve strings (oh yes, he plays that too...). "Salvador" is a full dive into the Amazon and it's immediately clear that the air there is clean.

Egberto switches from guitar to piano like moving from cream to chocolate. Haden carves the air on the piano chords with the cavernous voice of his bass. And it is thus that "Palhaço" is preluded, a moving, intense piece, on par with "Heartland" by Keith Jarrett. One track later and we're on another planet, even if, according to Egberto, we remain "Em Família". But who is this extraterrestrial on the guitar? Incredible virtuosity. And pulling off virtuosity to move and not just to amaze is something to take your hat off to. The audience erupts. We bow.

Ah... it closes with "Don Quixote". But Egberto and Charlie make us understand that making quality music, for the two of them, is not like fighting windmills.