Growing up in Brazil, Gui Duvignau says that he couldn’t help but be influenced by the music of guitarist/composer Baden Powell. “He’s not that well-known here [in the States], but in Brazil you can’t really avoid him—in a good way!”
Following two albums of original music, however, a tribute to Powell wasn’t necessarily the obvious next step for Duvignau. Born in France (Sunnyside), Duvignau’s latest album, is in one sense a homecoming, it’s also a further evolution of the harmonically rich, searching approach that made last year’s such a compelling listen. Far from a typical “Brazilian project,” forgoes the reliance on Brazilian rhythms and instead takes Powell on his own compositional terms.
