Exotic and Lush

Courtesy David Burgess

Latin guitarist David Burgess performs music from a vast Latin American repertoire, rearranging the works to add new life to old tradition.

by Ari Glogower
January 7, 2009

Guitar virtuoso David Burgess’s story started out like many others. Growing up in Glendale, Calif., the young Burgess wanted to be a rock star. He studied Jimmy Hendrix’s oeuvre and formed bands named “Mother Load” and “Mickey Rat.” It might have been the genesis of a rock legend, or the story behind a forgotten Fender gathering dust in a suburban garage.

But Burgess chose a different path than most young guitarists, and here his story veers from that of other garage-band aspirants. As a teenager, he started studying classical guitar to earn high-school credits, and something clicked. Burgess recalls that rock “got repetitive after a while.

“(Classical music) had more substance to it; it was more interesting to perform,” he says.

Burgess majored in music at the University of Washington in Seattle and studied intensively in Mexico City with the famed Latin guitarist Manuel Lopez Ramos. He discovered kindred spirits south of the border, where “the dividing line between classical and popular guitar is very hazy. Kids grow up playing guitar like baseball in the U.S.,” Burgess says.

After winning the esteemed Andres Segovia Fellowship in 1985, Burgess decided to decamp to New York and devote his full attention to performing and recording music. Since then, he has recorded numerous CDs and performed concerts throughout Europe, the Far East, Latin America and across the U.S. “Every state except for Delaware and Hawaii,” Burgess says, but he hopes to reach these laggards before long.

Burgess also plays the piano and the trumpet privately, but says he wouldn’t play them publicly. For his performances, six nylon strings is enough, offering a lifetime’s worth of musical traditions, compositions and improvisations. He plays a traditional classical guitar repertoire, as well as Brazilian bossa nova, Argentine tangos, jazz and pop. With characteristic understatement, Burgess says: “Guitar has so many subtleties.”

A well-trained guitarist can reproduce a vast array of sounds and styles on the simple instrument. Burgess employs techniques that imitate Brazilian percussion music, recreating the sounds of rattles and drums. Slave labor played a significant role in Brazil’s early settlement and agriculture, and as a result, the country’s music draws heavily from African music and rhythms. Argentina, in contrast, never had a significant slave population, and Spanish and Indian music provided the dominant influences. Burgess explains that Argentinean music “has a more exotic sound,” including Arabic and Middle Eastern scales.

Burgess draws upon all these styles as he plays. He doesn’t compose his own music, instead synthesizing and rearranging works from many musical traditions. About 10 years ago, he made a discovery that exponentially expanded his music pool. While traveling in Brazil—the home of his wife and the destination for many of Burgess’ vacations and research trips—he met an 80-year-old man who had collected recordings of guitar music all of his life, and who readily shared his treasure. “I brought home a stack of sheet music 6 feet high … and hundreds of recordings,” Burgess recalls. He’s still sorting through the music today, uncovering and giving a voice to forgotten musicians and songs.

For his concerts, Burgess doesn’t perform too much from the standard classical repertoire, opting instead for diverse set lists that convey the richness and variety of Latin music. He grows excited when describing the lineup for his upcoming concert at Millsaps College, revealing some tidbits while indicating that more surprises await. Listen for Bossa Nova by Antonio Carlos, best known for “The Girl From Ipanema,” and from Luis Bonfa, who collaborated with Carlos on the soundtrack to the seminal film, “Black Orpheus.”

Burgess will also introduce some lesser-known Brazilian composers such as Ernesto Nazareth, who created a musical form called the Tango Brasilero, which Burgess says is “a combination of the Argentine tango and polka, and sounds like American ragtime with Latin American influence.” Burgess will also pay homage to Joao Pernambuco, an illiterate composer, from the turn of the last century, who spent most of his time playing guitar in public markets, developing his own style and compositions without learning to read music.

Burgess performed at Millsaps two years ago, and he’s looking forward to his return visit. Perhaps he’ll even pick up Delta blues riffs on his visit to the Magnolia state. As Burgess puts it: “Everywhere I go, I search for music.”

David Burgess performs at the Millsaps College Ford Academic Complex Jan. 13 at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10; $5 with a student ID. Call 601-974-1043 for more info.