The Arrangements of Roland Dyens and Sérgio Assad: Innovations in Adapting Jazz Standards and Jazz-influenced Popular Works to the Solo Classical Guitar

Abstract

Classical guitarists Roland Dyens (b.1955) and Sérgio Assad (b.1952) are widely recognized for their productivity as arrangers, improvisers, composers and performers, and for their experience in jazz and Latin American popular styles. Dyens and Assad, professors at the Paris Conservatory and at the San Francisco Conservatory, respectively, are also important pedagogues of the instrument. A significant part of their creative output consists of arrangements of popular music, jazz and jazz-influenced works for the solo guitar. This study examines Dyens' arrangements of "Misty" and "All The Things You Are," and Assad's arrangements of "Verano" and "Invierno" from Las Estaciones Porteñas by Ástor Piazzolla, and compares them with arrangements by other guitarists (Agustín Carlevaro, Baltazar Benítez and Joe Pass), pointing out innovations in texture and polyphonic writing for the solo guitar. The author employs theories of hybridism and bi-musicality to frame his analysis and situates the works in terms of historical practice, including examples from arrangements by Luís de Narváez, Mauro Giuliani, Miguel Llobet and Léo Brouwer.