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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

Jordan Shipley and Michael McClintock are Mistura Fina (“fine blend”), Kansas City’s own guitar duo specializing in jazz, popular, and traditional folk music of both Brazil and America. Professionally trained in classical and jazz guitar, these two young talents have performed both locally and throughout the United States and Brazil.

The program began with Constance, a lovely instrumental duet played on a classical nylon string guitar by Shipley and semi-hollow body electric guitar by McClintock. This opening song was hesitant and it was difficult to hear the semi-hollow body, but they came together beautifully by the end.

The sexy Choro Pro Ze and upbeat Catavento e Girassol, both by Guinga, featured guest vocalist Karim Memi, whose deep, sultry vocals rounded out the sound. Memi was emotive, mysterious, and had excellent intonation and enunciation. Unfortunately, these early tunes were also still a bit hesitant and plagued with balance issues in the speaker system. Shipley gave us a taste of what was to come with his active, bluesy solo on Choro Pro Ze.

Balance issues were happily resolved by the vampy fourth and fifth tunes, Bebe and Santo Antonio by Hermet Pascaol—also instrumental duets for classical nylon and semi-hollow body. Shipley and McClintock became more energized at this point in the program. Both guitarists’ solos were well crafted with momentum, direction and clear melodic ideas. Trading the main melody between guitars created a nice timbral contrast in these pieces.

Joining the duo on percussion for much of the remainder of the program were brothers Leo and Leandro de Oliviera Pinto, starting with the classic Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa nova Triste. The lengthy introduction allowed Shipley breathing room to shape the melody and harmony on the classical nylon. The percussionists, while tapping simple tambourines, added a fun and welcome texture.

Two pieces by Milton Nascimento followed: Vera Cruz and Cravo e Canela. These lively tunes displayed both McClintock and Shipley’s expertise in both melodic and rhythmic technique. They showed precise control of tempo on the jazzy Vera Cruz and the guitars sounded especially rich and warm on the samba Cravo.

For Jocab do Bandolim’s light-hearted Noites Cariocas, Shipley switched to a cavaquinho (Brazilian ukulele). The noticeable echoed melody was enhanced by the complementary cavaquinho and guitar.

Clarinetist Mauricio Salguero joined the group for two chorinhos (the original Brazilian urban music) by Pixinguinha, first the slinky Naquele Tempo suffered some questionable intonation—humidity affecting the instruments, perhaps—but it was subtle and quite possibly even added to the charm of this piece. Segura Ele was bright and bubbly, with a wickedly near-constant clarinet line commendably performed by Salguero.

With Shipley playing the cavaquinho once again, Mistura Fina closed the concert as a duo with Waldir Azevedo’s Brasileirinho, the most vigorous piece of the evening. The duo exhibited their best dynamic and timbral range with their picking, fingerstyle plucking, and using techniques like palm muting for effect on this up-tempo and bluegrass-tinged chorinho featuring a consistent and repetitive melodic figure (with slight variations).

Mistura Fina’s rapport, relaxed poise and stage presence transcended the urban distractions and heat, putting the audience of sixty or so at ease—I suspect that had not been so miserably hot people would have been dancing. Overall, it was another fine concert in the Kansas City Guitar Society’s “Guitars in the Park” series, and I recommend checking out Mistura Fina at one of their many gigs around town this summer and enjoying more KCGS series presentations—they are a quiet treasure worth discovering. 

REVIEW:
Kansas City Guitar Society
Mistura Fina
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Oppenstein Brothers Park
12^th and Walnut, Kansas City, MO
For more information visit www.kansascityguitarsociety.org 

By Kristin Shafel Omiccioli

Editorial Assignments Executive Editor; Traditional and New Classical Contributor

Kristin Shafel Omiccioli, a native of Madison, WI, holds composition degrees (M.M., B.M.) from the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Kristin's compositions have been performed at national and regional new music festivals and conferences throughout the United States. During her time at UMKC, Kristin also focused on double bass performance and arts administration. She was a student leader and performer in many of the Conservatory's student organizations and ensembles, including Musica Nova, Composers' Guild, the Conservatory Student Association, the orchestras, and Wind Symphony. Her composition instructors were James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, Zhou Long, and Chen Yi, and her bass instructor was Sue Stubbs. Formerly a guitarist, Kristin performed with big bands and her own jazz combo in Madison, WI, having studied jazz guitar and theory with Roger Brotherhood in Madison and jazz voice and theory with Hal Melia in Kansas City at UMKC.

Kristin enjoys being active in the performing arts community. She has volunteered with the Chamber Music Society of Kansas City and Charlotte Street Foundation, and has played in the bass section of the Northland Symphony Orchestra, among other bass gigs around the metro. Kristin currently serves as principal bass for the Kansas City Civic Orchestra and Heritage Philharmonic, and is a section bassist for Kinnor Philharmonic. She joined the writing staff of KCMetropolis.org in February 2010 and has been KCM’s executive editor since July 2011. Read her blog at mylittleheartmelodies.com.