Gustavo Assis Brasil

Gustavo Assis-Brasil is a Brazilian American jazz guitarist. Based in Boston, he is considered a pioneer in the study and development of the hybrid picking technique for guitar. In 1999 he received a full scholarship to get his Master's degree at Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory. His main teachers were Mick Goodrick, Wayne Krantz, Ed Tomassi, Dave Fiuczynski, Rick Peckham, and Larry Baione. He has also studied with Charlie Banacos, and Prasanna. In 2005, Assis-Brasil released the book Hybrid Picking for Guitar.

Contents

• Excerpt from gustavo assis brasil chromatic extravaganza 1
• Gustavo assis brasil my one and only love kistler archtop guitar aer compact 60
• Discography
• References

He is the director of the jazz and Contemporary Music Ensembles of The Cambridge School of Weston, and he teaches at Berklee College of Music during the guitar sessions. Assis-Brasil taught clinics at the Guitar Institute of Technology in Los Angeles, California; University of Southern California; Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts; UFRGS, Brazil; Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil; University of Passo Fundo, Brazil, and Uppsala Guitar Festival, Sweden.

Assis-Brasil took master classes and lessons with Pat Metheny, Frank Gambale, Mike Stern, David Liebman and John Scofield. Assis-Brasil also studied improvisation and composition privately with the late jazz-guru Charlie Banacos.

From 2001 until 2006, Assis-Brasil played and toured with the renowned group the Dig Trio.

In 2005, Assis-Brasil released the book Hybrid Picking for Guitar. This book is about the first method entirely dedicated to the art of combining pick and fingers to play the guitar. The book is in its third edition and has received praise worldwide.

In 2008, he released the follow-up book, Hybrid Picking Exercises: Single Note Permutations, with more than 1,400 different exercises based entirely on math permutations. Also in 2008, Assis-Brasil released a live DVD/CD combo called In Concert, which features his original compositions. In the same year, he was invited by ESC Records (Germany) to write and record an arrangement of Steely Dan's "Aja", as part of a tribute CD called Maestros of Cool. The CD was released in the US and Europe.

In 2009, Assis-Brasil was invited to participate in the project Mahavishnu Re-Defined – A Tribute to John McLaughlin & the Mahavishnu Orchestra, along with other important jazz artists.

In 2010 was featured as the soundtrack as composer for the Brazilian movie Manhã Transfigurada. The movie is also available on DVD with his full soundtrack, which was released at the same time.

In 2011, Assis-Brasil released his third book, Hybrid Picking Lines and Licks. British guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan wrote the foreword for it.

In 2017, Gustavo's song “Gee,” from his critically acclaimed new album Chromatic Dialogues, has won First Place in the Instrumental category for the 2016 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). There were over 16,000 entries from 137 countries.

He has performed and recorded with artists and groups including Mozik, John Stowell, Tim Pascoal, Frank Potenza, Richard Smith, Mauricio Zottarelli, Hiromi, Tony Grey, Prasanna, Greg Hopkins, Esperanza Spalding, Brett Wilmott, Bob Mintzer, Richard Bona, Matthew Nicholl, Tim Ries (The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder), Nelson Faria, Jose Pienasola (Elis Regina, Romero Lubambo, Leny Andrade), Michael Farquharson, Hiroaki Honshuku, Vardan Ovsepian, Oriente Lopez, Dough Johnson, Natalie Dietrich, Fernando Huergo, Mark Walker (Oregon), and Vardan Ovsepian.