Press

Musicians' technical skills have been on a rising curve for decades, and clearly a high point has been attained by the energetic and intensely serious Danilo Brito, a bandolim player who grabs hold of every piece he plays(…) In particular, the disc serves as a fine introduction to a coherent solo style, paced by ideas assembled in an imaginative manner. Brito's good taste steers him well clear of any prevalent trends, allowing the music's integrity to reveal itself from within. Brito, through both understating and overstating, stimulates peers to bring out the right message from Pixinguinha's music, thoroughly reinventing pieces in ways that the composer would have saluted. A young man at peace with his talent and his music, a musician who has proved himself one of the most formidably well-equipped bandolim players ever to riffle through the Visa MPB process, and whose immediate stylistic antecedent and chief inspiration is the unadorned sound of Jacó do Bandolim. Combining the intricacy and instrumental sound of Jacó with the progressive harmonic attack of Hamilton de Holanda, Brito commands a multi-shaded tonal palette and is possibly Jacó's truest and best successor, though in no sense his imitator. His playing is agile, lean, and impetuous, with infinite flushes of warmth. In this excellent program, never does anything compromise the integrity, spontaneity, virtuosity, and sheer bravado of the performances. Absolute rhythmic precision and the clarity of color that comes from meticulous balance are among its other pleasures. Each piece is a musical event, complete, integrated, and resourceful.