The Girl from Ipanema

[stoney]

As I recalled concerts from the past with my posting concerning SummerFest, I recalled the time I was fortunate enough to see Charlie Byrd in concert at Lawrence University in Appleton,WI.
I do not recall the year but I would guess sometime in the late 80's. From the time I was just a youngin' I enjoyed his album "Brazilian Byrd", not that I was a major fan but every time I heard that tune "The Girl from Ipanema" I could visualize this young beautiful lady strolling down the street. Many people have covered this song, I am not sure who wrote it.
He was to perform in the Chappell but they moved the concert to a small hall at the university. This brought us as an audience much closer to the performer and made the experience much more personal. For me music has always been my escape and for the most part concerts fly by as if I loose all sense of time. This was no exception to that rule and I could not recite the playlist nor do I care to but what sticks out from memory is that his guitar was more like an extension of himself. Using a custom made support that was mounted to bottom of the guitar it straddled his leg.
The main intent I am guessing was to maintain as little contact with his body as possible to achieve maximum resonance. To say the sound was “sweet” would be minimizing his performance as it was extraordinary.
His fingers floated across the neck of the guitar like no other guitar player I ever seen perform. I have seen the likes of Eric (is god) Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn ( last concert), Dave Mason, g e Smith, Carlos Santana, Johnny Winter, BB King, Pete Townsend, Leo Kotke…etc.
But Charlie Byrd played that guitar as if he had been playing it since the beginning of time.
Here he was cradling his guitar as if it was his child and performing as if he was sitting in our living room and just casually playing his guitar. He started out performing a set alone and then like the Master he was, invited a few university student to accompany him for a set. My memory has faded but I do recall that the evening flew by and I left the concert hall to go home, I new I would never see a performance like that again. He passed on in 1999 at a younger age than I thought he was. The road evidently made him worse for the wear.
To sum it up despite the low key, small venue, the performance stood out as decent.
The next time you hear "And when she passes each one she passes goes "a-a-ah!"
Think of Charlie , not that he wrote it or sung it but his guitar told you the story just as well.


Thank you Charlie Byrd