THE NUMBER 26 BUS TO PARAGUAY

    

The Number 26 Bus To Paraguay

The inspiring tale of how a young boy on the number 26 bus to his first guitar lesson ended up in Paraguay as an honoured guest.

Based on his latest album The Number 26 Bus To Paraguay, maverick concert guitarist Richard Durrant follows his successful Guitar Whisperer series of concerts with a show celebrating the life & music of Augustin Barrios, including, along the way, music by Django Reinhardt, Claude Debussy and Los Paraguayos.

With his warm and easy rapport with audiences, Richard shares tales and music from his own musical journey and the inspiration he found in Paraguayan composer Barrios, an abiding musical presence that led him to perform at the country’s bicentenary celebrations in spring 2011. The Number 26 Bus To Paraguay features animation and film projected behind Richard as he plays, in a musical event that demonstrates just how far one man can expand the expressive range of the guitar - light years from what you might expect a classical guitar recital to be. 

"One of the world’s most accomplished and experimental players.” Guitarist Magazine 2011

 "One is left with the impression of a man who loves music and life in equal measure.” Gramophone Magazine 2011

"The UK nylon-string King sets course for sunnier climes...The rawness of his playing is laudable and unusual, creating one of the year's most passionate solo guitar records."  Guitarist Magazine June 2011

"Durrant never lets his stunning technique overshadow this wonderful, timeless music." The Sun Newspaper

"Expressive, full of vitality and very original"  Rafael Marcial Montiel, corresponsal ABC Color, Paraguay

"Richard's gig was the best attended of any of the Fringe events at this year's Welsh Proms. Richard went down superbly well, the feedback we’ve had already has been excellent.” Matt Blackhouse, Events Planner, St David's Hall, Cardiff

 The Danza Paraguaya features visuals by animator Mark Charlton (Bluestar Animation), artist Miranda Vincent and stage & lighting design by Bill Hammond (Rambert Dance Company).

  

  

The story of the Paraguayan Concert Tour and Album Launch

April/May 2011 Written by Rebecca Ridolfo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Durrant. A Very Personal Pilgrimage

A great tour is a mixture of a well-planned itinerary and those magical, unexpected moments that make it truly memorable. Richard & Louise Durrant’s visit to Paraguay was just such a tour. There was laughter, tears of joy & sorrow, a toucan, a floating harpist, a parade, stars of all kinds, awards, ovations and the hospitality, generosity and friendship so typical of this mysterious and remote South American country.

The connection between Richard Durrant and Paraguay’s greatest musician, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, made the visit a very personal pilgrimage. Early in the tour, Richard felt moved to compose a guitar solo dedicated to his childhood hero Barrios, which he named Apretón de Manos (The Handshake). His inspiration came from staying in the same hotel as Barrios, albeit nearly a century later. Travelling the Ruta Mangoreum felt more like a homecoming than a trip to an exotic, foreign place. Meeting the familial & cultural descendants of Barrios – such as great nephew Lito Barrios & elder statesman of Paraguayan guitar Felipe Sosa – strengthened the bond, the fraternidad de guitarristas.

Una Limosna por el Amor de Dios, the last piece that Barrios wrote, inspired tears of joy from national DJ Berto Barsotti when he heard Richard play. The impact of the music’s beauty was not limited to humans – as Richard practised at a dusty roadside in the Chaco, he attracted a feathery audience. A toucan listened to his rendition of Una Limosna, fascinated and concentrating hard until the last chord rang out and the bird keeled over onto its side as if dead. After a shocking pause, it stood up, shook itself and flew off. Even bird brains can feel the transcendental passion of the music.

Having four children of his own helped Richard connect to the 700-strong audience at the Pai Puku School. They sat enthralled and then giggled their way through the English tongue-twister I Know a Man Called Micheal Finnegan, singing superbly well for a Guaraní-speaking, novice choir. The adult audiences were just as delighted – more than one gig ended with a standing ovation.

Travelling back from the Chaco, the tour party were horrified at the news that Asunción’s Instituto Municipal del Arte (the Arts & Music College) was on fire. As they approached the city, the huge plume of smoke was clearly visible on the distant horizon. The building eventually burned to the ground. Two days later and the emotion bubbled to the surface when Richard, visibly moved, became the first person to unwrap and hold Mangoré’s handwritten manuscripts. They had been brought to Paraguay for the very first time by respected Barrios collector Cesar Amaro and are now exhibited at the new Barrios museum in Asunción’s Teatro Municipal. The opening of the museum was marked by a gala Barrios concert at which Richard was the headline act and during which his latest solo album was officially launched. Before the concert, made possible by Alejandra Peña (Director of Culture) and Sr. Arnaldo Samaniego (Mayor of Asuncion), Richard was declared an Illustrious Visitor to the City of Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, by the Mayor and the City Council. Similar honours followed in Villa Florida and San Juan Bautista, both cities with strong Barrios associations.

The visit to Barrios’s birthplace in Villa Florida, Missiones, was spectacular in many ways. Richard and Louise were rowed across the wide, flat Río Tebicuary, accompanied by a harpist in another boat. They rode from the riverside in a horse & cart, alongside a marching band, majorettes and mounted police. The parade was met by every local dignitary for miles around and the reception party began. Touched by the warmth of the hospitality and bursting with pride at receiving awards for his contribution to Paraguayan culture, Richard played his final concert in the Barrios family home in San Juan Bautista. The joyful ovation was all the more remarkable coming from an audience so used to visiting guitarists.

The traditional, Paraguayan barbecue at the Corrales family’s San Agustín ranch provided a magical ending to Richard’s pilgrimage. In the late 19th century, the Corrales and Barrios families were close friends and so it transpired that this remote estancia gave its name to the Barrios’ famous son. San Agustín is far from the light-pollution of modern civilisation and still home to the Corrales family. On the night that Richard sat outside – where Barrios himself had sat – drinking Paraguayan beer and playing guitar for his friends, the Milky Way shone wide and bright across the vast Paraguayan sky. A sparkling end to a magical journey along the Ruta Mangoreum.

 

Testimonials written for Richard Durrant by world authorities on Mangoré

To this extraordinarily gifted and emotional artist of the highest order I say, “May your career stretch for decades so that many might come to know your art as interpreter and spokesperson for the music of Agustin Barrios Mangoré”.

After pondering British maestro Durrant’s renditions of the music of my compatriot Agustin Barrios, I was struck by the quality of timbre, profoundness of sonority, and maturity in expressivity in all the interpretations emanating from the “heart and hands” of this new generation of performer. Durrant distinguishes himself in that his style shows a high level of maturity of execution, beyond the norm, an outlier among concert guitarists if you will, this made possible by his keen connection with and understanding of Barrios’ sublime intentions and attitudes. It is obvious that Durrant has studied and listened to the Barrios original recordings and taken to heart and lesson the interpretations made by Barrios in Buenos Aires in the 1920s. Thusly, the CD has the effect of transporting the listener to a distant and magical world where all sound textures are explored, no measure wasted in its contribution to the whole, where Barrios Mangore himself seems brought to life. 

I cite for example the Mazurka Apassionata and Sueño en la Floresta, which exact from the interpreter total dominion over the six stringed instrument – a dominion had by Durrant in exquisite abundance. In these two masterworks, Durrant demonstrates his capacity as artist, making use of all guitaristic devices to help make the music transcendental, dreamy, and imagery-rich: one feels as if carried back to romantic periods reminiscent of a belle epoch in Latin America -- mysterious, surreal, remote. 

I congratulate Richard Durrant who has arrived both physically and metaphorically in Paraguay and the world of Agustin Barrios. In my opinion, Durrant has successfully represented the works of the great Paraguayan – a feat achieved by only a few guitarists anointed by destiny to carry his music and art forward.  Felipe Sosa, Founder of the Paraguayan Classical Guitar School, Asuncion. (Paraguay 15 de mayo 2011)

Extremely musical and expressive. With virtuosity to spare. I am speaking of Richard Durrant, English guitarist who recently visited Paraguay playing the music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré. The public acclaimed him not only because he presented an all-Barrios program (which he played superlatively), but also because of his passion and tenderness, qualities that he communicates through his magnificent playing of the classic guitar. Durrant is a musician of depth who can play a variety of musical styles, from the Concierto de Aranjuez with the Royal Philharmonic, to popular music and jazz. Here is a mature musician of extraordinary technical prowess.

His phrasing and his use of color, together with his virtuosic execution, are very personal. Watching him one receives the impression that the works of Barrios are easy to play...but such is not the case. The Mazurka Apasionata is of the highest degree of technical difficulty as is Un Sueño en la Floresta, both of which Durrant plays with the conviction and authority that is needed to reach a high level of expression with the music of Barrios.

We add Durrant to the list of guitarists who have released CDs dedicated to the music of Agustín Barrios Mangoré—a list that keeps growing as the years pass, and on which Durrant occupies a high place. I hope that he can return soon and spend more than a week in Paraguay because he has made many friends here with his warm personality, his outstanding virtuosity and his love of Barrios’ music. Rico Stover. Barrios biographer and ethnomusicologist (Caacupé, 14 de mayo 2011)

All the tracks are wonderful. I think even Barrios himself would be an admirer of Durrant’s style of playing, his interpretations. I have never heard anything like it. Durrant seems to be having fun with each measure, with each phrase and passage, each different, each delicate. Carlos Salcedo Author of ‘El Inalcanzable’ and authority on the life of Barrios  (Asuncion, 1 de mayo 2011)