5 December 1947, Carmo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Gismonti had a classical musical education starting to play the piano when he was six years old. He went to Paris in the 60s to study orchestration and analysis with Nadia Boulanger and composition with the avant garde composer Barraque. On his return to Brazil in 1966 he became interested in choro, which he has described as a kind of popular Brazilian funk. Gismonti successfully blends African-Brazilian forms with jazz in his compositions. He taught himself the guitar and was at first influenced by Baden Powell
and Deno. His influences during the early 70s were as wide ranging as Django Reinhardt
and Jimi Hendrix.
In 1973 Gismonti changed to the 8-string guitar which allowed him a greater variety of chord voicings, more flexible bass lines and drones: in 1981 he moved on to the 10-string guitar on which the extra strings extended the bass. His performances on either piano or guitar are always...
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