Shoreham guitar virtuoso Richard Durrant celebrates the music of Paraguay

SussexWorld

Shoreham-based guitarist and composer Richard Durrant is on the road with his solo UK tour of Paraguayan music The Number 26 Bus To Paraguay – a title borrowed from Richard’s 2011 album of the same name.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, for

00:07years now, it's been a huge pleasure to speak to Richard Durrant regularly, Richard, Shoreham

00:12based guitar virtuoso. You're heading out on tour with a lovely sounding programme of

00:17Paraguayan music, a number of dates around the country. But the point is, for you, Paraguayan

00:23music really started with barrios, and your discovery of barrios goes back quite some

00:29time, doesn't it? Yes, it does. It goes back to, well, to my childhood in a rather crowded

00:37house in Hollingbury, near Brighton, where we had a record player. And I had a record

00:41given to me for Christmas when I was, well, it was 1971, so I would have been nine years

00:46old. And this was a recording by a Venezuelan guitarist called Alirio Diaz. And on this

00:53album were three tracks by Agustin Barrios, who I became very fixated with. And I was

01:00already having guitar lessons, but I pleaded with my parents to book me into this little

01:05guitar school in Brighton, the Brighton Guitar Studios. And I used to catch the number 26

01:10bus down there to my lessons, because I wanted to play, amongst many other things, I really

01:16wanted to play the music of barrios.

01:17What was it he said to you then, when you heard his music?

01:22Well, it's very direct music. There's a lot of folk music in Paraguay, and the Paraguayan

01:27folk music is normally played on the harp. But there was also another famous cultural

01:32export from that part of the world, which was a band called Los Paraguayos, who were

01:37a singing outfit who also played guitars, and there was a harp. And my mum and dad had

01:43some of their records as well. You can hear echoes of Los Paraguayos in the Beatles, in

01:47the harmonies of the Beatles. That famous call that they end on. That kind of call that

01:55they sometimes sing at the end of a song, that's pure Los Paraguayos. And I'm convinced

02:00that John and Paul, their mums will have had, or Auntie Mim would have had Los Paraguayos

02:05albums.

02:06Isn't that interesting, and it filtered through somehow. But your affinity with Barrios goes

02:10so deeply, doesn't it? You were saying really touchingly that when you're playing his music,

02:15you kind of imagine that he's there with you. Why does that affinity go so deeply, do you

02:20think?

02:22Well, I've known him a long time. I felt the folk qualities and the directness of his music

02:28when I heard that record that I received all those years ago. And I still got the record

02:32and I still play it. But there's something about the music as well that's very, it's

02:40very heartfelt, very meaningful. The harmonies are very rich. That's a South American thing

02:46as well, in particular Paraguayan thing. But the more I've learned about Barrios, the more

02:51I feel I recognise things about him in myself, his kind of life of roving around playing

02:58concerts. And, you know, he never made it onto the world stage in the significant way

03:04that somebody like Segovia or Pablo Casals, who were his contemporaries. Even Django

03:11Reinhardt was better known than Barrios, but Barrios was undoubtedly one of the greatest

03:17guitar players of the 20th century. And definitely the greatest guitarist composer that

03:27we've ever had.

03:28But the other aspect is you also sense between you, you are both outsiders, aren't you? And

03:33you're saying, really interestingly, that for both of you, it wasn't about commercial

03:37success. It was about artistic success. And that's quite a distinction.

03:41Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you have to have a very special set of attributes to pursue

03:49fame, I think, you know, it's very separate from wanting to play guitar as beautifully

03:53as you can. So Segovia was fantastically well equipped to become a global superstar, as

04:00was Pablo Casals. You know, they had great management. That was the priority. So decisions

04:05were made to promote that side of their lives. Now, with Barrios, he had a talent for

04:11composition and he was fascinated by his folkloric background, folkloric, you know, to

04:19use the South American word for folk music. He was so involved in that and so immersed

04:24in his creations that he wasn't really concerned with self promotion. Now, I have to

04:31promote my work. That's how I've paid my mortgage my whole life, you know. But it's not a

04:36priority. The priority is to play this thing as beautifully as I can.

04:38Absolutely. And you say the priority is to play this thing and you're sitting poised.

04:43Can you give us a quick insight into the magic of Barrios?

04:49Yeah, let's give you just a little burst of his most famous tune, which is almost like

04:54the Paraguayan national anthem. It's called Danza Paraguaya, which is a Paraguayan dance.

05:24Wow, that is fabulous. That takes you somewhere, doesn't it?

05:36Yeah, it really does. Yeah. Yeah, it takes you to South America.

05:42Fantastic. And in the meantime, you're on tour around the UK. Richard, always really

05:47lovely to speak to you. Thank you for your time.

05:49You too, Phil. Cheers, mate.

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