Brazilian Traveller

One of my first live-encounters with the Brazilian guitar tradition was in the mid-1980ies at a concert featuring the Danish guitarist, Tom Roy Nielsen, who played in a trio setting at some small venue. I was delighted to hear the trio's renditions of a repertoire of both jazz standards and Brazilian samba, choro and bossa much in the same way as similar contributions by Charlie Byrd's Trio and Laurindo Almeida's L.A. Four. I was especially excited to experience that Tom mastered the same playing technique as Charlie Byrd and Laurindo Almeida, very unusual in Denmark at that time. After the concert I had a small talk with Tom and learned that he was a classical trained guitarist devoting his interest and skills to the Brazilian guitar tradition, actually he was about to travel to Brazil doing futher studies and taking lessons from native teachers.

A couple of years ago I had a cd featuring Tom Roy Nielsen, "Brazilian Traveller" (Olufsen Records, DOCD 5386, iss. 2000). The cd has both solo performance by Tom displaying excellent guitar wizardry in compositions by i.e. Dorival Caymmi, Sebastião Tapajós, Paulo Bellinatti, Marco Pereira, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Baden Powell, Garoto a.o., and on four tracks he is accompanied by bass guitar and drums as the Balancado Latin Trio. Listening to these recordings by Tom Roy Nielsen is a sheer delight and makes you wish for more, but unfortunately there is no more - and will be no more. Recently I learned that Tom passed away in July 2000, a great loss to the guitar society in Denmark and elsewhere.

Tom Roy Nielsen, Denmark, b. 1955, d. 2000
Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Music by Per-Olof Johnson and Lars Trier. Studied for a long period in Brazil with Sebastião Tapajós, Marco Pereira and Ulisses Rocha. Furthermore studied in Paris with Roland Dyens. Toured as a soloist in Japan, Mexico and Spain. Was a member of several permanent chamber music ensembles, including a trio with guitar, bass and percussion and a duo with the flutist Kim Menzer.Tom Roy Nielsen was a member of Corona Guitar Kvartet since its foundation in 1995 until his death in July 2000.

The mentioned cd by Tom Roy Nielsen may not be easy to trace, it's no longer available in the catalogue of Olufsen records, but it may be found secound-hand and is definitely worth searching, if you are interested in the Brazilian guitar tradition as reflected and performed by a skilled master of the instrument.Tracklist inserted below:

1-Lagoa do abaeté (Dorival Caymmi), 2-Pau-de-arara (Luiz Gonzaga), 3-O choro de Juliana (Marco Pereira), 4-Encuentro marcado (Sebastião Tapajós), 5-Carimbó (Sebastião Tapajós), 6-Sons de carrilhões (João Pernambuco), 7-Contatos (Paulo Bellinatti), 8-A felicidada-saudade da Bahia (Antonio Carlos Jobim); 9-Choro triste (Garoto), 10-Jorge do fusa (Garoto), 11-Teia de renda (Milton Nascimento), 12-Linha de passe (João Bosco), 13-Marcha escocesa (Baden Powell), 14-Samambaia (César Carmago Mariano), 15-Odeon (Ernesto Nazareth), 16-Brejeiro (Ernesto Nazareth)

Jo