Hamilton de Holanda & Yamandú Costa: Live!

Technical Brilliance

It’s commonly known that Hamilton de Holanda and Yamandú Costa are two exceptionally skilled instrumentalists. Hamilton de Holanda on his 10-string mandolin and Yamandú Costa on his 7-string acoustic guitar. They both combine a dazzling technique with a passion for Brazilian traditional music. And they both love to play in duo settings. What happens when these two geniuses hit the stage together can be heard on this live album.

In January 2008, when the album was recorded, Hamilton was 31 years old and Yamandú only 27. These young ages make their performance even more amazing. Although they sometimes don’t worry about playing too many notes, the music still stays accessible. It’s impressive how one completes the lines of the other, true musical dialogues. It shows fine craftsmanship to do that. The choro “Whispered” is a nice example of that.

The most beautiful moments are two ballads “Sweet” and “Light of Dawn.” Here the musicians show how lyrical the sounds of the guitar and the mandolin can complement each other; duets in the best possible way. On “Samba for Rapha” Yamandú Costa pays tribute to his big example, the late Raphael Rabello (1962-1995). Yamandú proves to be a good student, although he still misses the warm sound that marked Raphael Rabello‘s musical approach. Yamandú Costa features his love for the Spanish flamenco tradition on “Seasons.” Hamilton de Holanda takes the chance to show the artistic possibilities of his own composition “01 Byte 10 Strings.” The wonderful ballad “Flower of Life” can be called a typical piece of Hamilton de Holanda music. The album closes with an encore, the only non-original composition on the album. The respectful rendition of the Brazilian tango “Escorregando” by pianist/composer Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934) underlines the interest in Brazilian music history of Hamilton de Holanda and Yamandú Costa. Although hardly three minutes long, this track belongs without any doubt among the album’s highlights.

Much can be said about the tour de force by these two gentlemen. Their technical brilliance allows them to include improvised references to samba, choro, flamenco and jazz in their performance. The best thing to do is to listen and undergo some moments of amazement.