Guitarist Dori Caymmi Displays a Few of His Hyphenated Skills

John Pisano’s Tuesday night guitar sessions at Spazio in Sherman Oaks almost always offer memorable musical moments. But this past Tuesday’s performance, which featured Pisano with Brazilian guitarist Dori Caymmi, bassist Tom Warrington and drummer Mike Shapiro, was a particularly special occasion.

What made it so was the presence of Caymmi, who is one of the Southland’s musical treasures. The veteran musician, a true hyphenate whose various disciplines include superb guitar work, singing, songwriting, arranging, producing and composing, has lived in Los Angeles since he moved here from his native Rio in the ‘80s.

The evening’s most entrancing moments arrived when Caymmi took the stage as a solo artist, spontaneously cruising through a collection of tunes ranging from familiar Antonio Carlos Jobim items to Cole Porter’s “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” George Harrison’s “Something” and the Ary Barroso South American classic “Aquarela do Brasil” (the latter numbers performed with the full ensemble).

His voice is an extraordinarily communicative instrument, filled with darkly layered textures of sound, pliantly moving across dramatically timed phrases, interacting with his guitar in a fashion reminiscent of the remarkable voice and guitar patterns of bossa nova founder Joao Gilberto.

His guitar work was equally impressive, employing altered string tunings to produce chords that were voiced in a way that brought a virtually new identity to the most familiar harmonic patterns. Add to that his imaginative arranging skill: In “Something,” for example, he virtually deconstructed the song into its component pieces before reassembling it into a tropical expression that surely would have fascinated Harrison.

It was, in short, yet another marvelous evening in Pisano’s continuing guitar night presentations. It was also a reminder that, in Caymmi, the Southland has a world-class musical talent--one deserving of more extensive hearings.

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John Pisano’s Tuesday Guitar Nights at Spazio, 14755 Ventura Blvd., 2nd Floor, Sherman Oaks. Appearing Tuesday: Barry Zweig with Pisano, bassist Chris Colangelo and drummer Dick Weller. (818) 728-8400.