Egberto Gismonti

Egberto Gismonti was born in Carmo, in inland Rio de Janeiro state, into a family of musicians, and began with the piano as a child. In 1968, the song O Sonho was performed by Três Moraes at a festival in Rio; in Europe, he studied with Nadia Boulanger and Jean Barraqué and conducted the orchestra accompanying Marie Laforêt. He made his recording debut on Elenco in 1969; the following year brought Sonho 70 on Polydor, featuring Mercador de Serpentes, which competed in the V Festival Internacional da Canção. He expanded beyond keyboards to guitars with as many as 14 strings, recorded with Naná Vasconcelos, Charlie Haden and Jan Garbarek, released fifteen albums on the German label ECM and founded the Carmo label.