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Água E Vinho

CARMO/14

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ECM recording artist and Carmo Records founder Egberto Gismonti was astonished, but also very pleased, to receive in 1998 an album by the unorthodox Melbourne-based duo of Rodney Waterman and Doug de Vries: “I’m still surprised by the instrumentation,” Gismonti confessed. “I didn’t expect to hear this much music from recorder and guitar!” Recorder: Rodney Waterman. 

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ECM recording artists and Carmo Records founder Egberto Gismonti was astonished, but also very pleased, to receive in 1998 an album by the unorthodox Melbourne-based duo of Rodney Waterman and Doug de Vries: “I’m still surprised by the instrumentation,” Gismonti confessed. “I didn’t expect to hear this much music from recorder and guitar!” To that original recording a further 20 minutes of Egberto Gismonti music, played with verve by the Australians, has been added.

It was Gismonti’s playing and composing which, back in 1995, had provided the impetus for the musicians’ collaborative work: “Doug played me Gismonti’s album ‘Alma’,” Waterman recalls. “I was completely blown away by the music and especially Gismonti’s amazing ability as a performer. Our duo began as a result of this meeting.”

Rodney Waterman graduated from Melbourne University with a degree in musicology and went on to study recorder with Dutch early music specialist and contemporary composer Kees Boeke (who once said, “in early or contemporary music I consider the recorder an avant-garde instrument”) in Italy and Holland. Waterman’s repertoire is eclectic and includes baroque, folk, contemporary and Brazilian music, with a special emphasis on Brazilian music. He also plays lute.

Waterman is particularly interested in exploring, through improvisation, the intrinsic and fundamental beauty of the essentially simple ‘woody’ tonal qualities of the recorder, aiming to discover more of the ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ of the instrument.

Doug De Vries has won prizes as Australia’s best jazz guitarist, leads his own trio, has a reputation as a writer / orchestrator of music for film and is a regular member of Paul Grabowsky’s Australian Art Orchestra. As a composer, he was commissioned to write a piece, New Metamorphoses, for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Metropolis series, which premiered in Melbourne in August 1997. His passion for the music of Brazil took him to that country in May 2000 and, at present, he is studying traditional music forms there.

On ‘Água e Vinho’ the duo’s repertoire incorporates six compositions by Egberto Gismonti, two by Hermeto Pascoal (variously referred to by his countrymen as the Miles or the Gil Evans or the Sun Ra of Brazil), ‘Jorge do Fusa’ by Anibal Augusto Sardinha (1915-55, considered by many to be Brazil’s greatest guitarist-composer), four Catalan folk songs, music of 16th century Spanish composer Diego Ortiz, and original pieces by both recorder specialist Waterman and jazz guitarist de Vries. The music ranges from rollicking afro-samba to pieces inspired by birdsong and Gamelan music.

The album’s liner notes, penned by Waterman and de Vries, include historical / contextual background on the individual pieces.



  • Reviews

    • "I want to thank you very much for all the passion and musicality dedicated to my compositions. Besides the splendid duet music, I'm still surprised about the duet instrumentation! I did not expect to listen to this amount of music from 'recorder & guitar'. Thank you for this good news!"
                                 -- Egberto Gismonti, Brazil, July 1998.

    "Waterman's playing revels in the freedom and improvisatory nature of the Brazilian music..."
                   -- Benjamin Dunham, American Recorder, September 1998, p.23

    "Rodney Waterman is one of Australia's most individual recorder players; his style is effervescent and controlled and has a natural improvisatory feel to it which suits this type of music perfectly ... Doug de Vries' guitar playing is stylish and natural throughout. He coaxes a beautiful tone and balance out of his instrument ... A recording project like this one must have been a big gamble for the performers, and Rodney Waterman and Doug de Vries are to be congratulated. Unusual and different and recommended to all..."
                           -- Peter Nussey, Recorder and Early Music, No. 22, 1998

    "Agua e Vinho is a beautiful new recording by two of Melbourne's finest musicians: well-known jazz guitarist, Doug de Vries, and recorder virtuoso, Rodney Waterman ... some quite brilliant playing altogether. This beautifully presented CD would make a great addition to any music lover's collection."
                          -- Bôite Music Supplement, July/September 1998

    "It is a very diverse and eminently listenable collection of pieces, lilting and lyrical, melancholy and lovely, haunting and atmospheric in turn. It's just amazing how  well the guitar and recorder go together, and the playing is nothing short of brilliant and very moving. Highly recommended."
                           -- Sophie Masson, The New Englander, August 12, 1998

    "Is this one of our favourite new recorder CDs of 1998? We think so!....For all those jaded souls who want to hear their favourite instrument doing something a little different. Recorder playing from the heart and hip!
                           -- Dragon's Breath, Issue No.10, September 1998

    "Beautiful collection of guitar/recorder duets, strong Brazilian feel"
        -- Steve Barnes, Radio RTR FM 92.1 in Perth, Western Australia, Jan 17th 1999 (Steve included "Song of Reconciliation" from the CD in his "pick of the year" show (17.1.99), featuring his favourite listens of 1998.

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