"Their speed, their gorgeous tone, their ease reaching over the body of the guitar to its extreme high range, their uncanny musical memories ... and their ability to play thousands of notes without a single clinker, click or buzz are the stuff of guitar gods," says the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel of Sérgio and Odair Assad's recent performance in Milwaukee. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, reviewing their performance in the Seattle Symphony's guitar series, says that "the Assads displayed all the taste and refinement for which they are known ... their music gleams with such innate virtuosity."
Guitar virtuosos Sérgio and Odair Assad recently performed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as part of a nationwide tour in support of their new album, Jardim Abandonado. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's music critic Tom Strini, a guitarist himself, was left in awe:
Their speed, their gorgeous tone, their ease reaching over the body of the guitar to its extreme high range, their uncanny musical memories (not a page of music appeared on the stage), and their ability to play thousands of notes without a single clinker, click or buzz are the stuff of guitar gods.
The challenges presented by the duo's eclectic repertoire "melted away before the Assads' consummate skill, in an inspiring concert that celebrated the swooping energy of musical phrases and the irresistible beauty of the sound of two guitars."
Not long after that performance, the Assads opened the new season of the Seattle Symphony's guitar series and received another glowing review, this time from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Music critic I.M. Campbell writes that "the Assads displayed all the taste and refinement for which they are known ... their music gleams with such innate virtuosity."
Listen to selections from the album in an recent Nonesuch Journal post.