| Jazz |
Sometimes an album seduces you first by its sonic fabric, by the atmosphere it casts even before its melodies begin to unfold. That is precisely the spell of Todos Os Tempos (“All Times and All Eras”), the first solo project of guitarist and composer Roberto Montero. A contemporary Brazilian instrumental album built entirely on original compositions, it stands at the confluence of popular song, jazz, and classical thinking. That intermingling of genres is not merely decorative; it reflects one of the deepest dynamics of Brazilian music itself, where the border between the popular and the erudite has always been porous, fertile, and constantly renegotiated.
To understand where Montero comes from, it helps to situate him within the lineage of Brazilian guitarists whose work has shaped both national identity and international perception. There is Bola Sete, with his oceanic lyricism and unmatched ability to fold samba into jazz phrasing; Guinga, the master of harmonic labyrinths and bittersweet melodies; Toninho Horta, whose crystalline tone and floating harmonies redefined the Minas Gerais sound. Montero does not imitate any of them, yet he clearly speaks a language forged in the wake of these innovators, instrumentalists who proved that Brazilian guitar could be both intimate and orchestral, earthy and experimental, rooted in tradition yet open to the world.
Born in Brazil and long based in the United States, Montero deepened this dual cultural identity at the Los Angeles Music Academy, studying with visionaries such as Frank Gambale, Bill Fowler, Jeff Richman, Dave Pozzi, Tony Inzalaco, Linda Taylor and Joy Basu. The exposure to jazz fusion, American harmonic vocabulary, and global rhythmic frameworks expanded his horizon without tearing him away from the sensibility shaped by Brazilian musical memory. What emerges today is a voice that moves easily between universes, AC/DC on one side of the spectrum, the refined architectures of Brazilian music on the other. That contradictory pairing is not a novelty for him; it is the essence of his artistic DNA.
What first strikes the listener on Todos Os Tempos is the quality of its textures. Montero is not a guitarist who overwhelms; he sculpts. His sound often seems to arrive from the periphery, gradually inhabiting the space with layers that feel more breathed than played. His tone can be velvety, almost watercolor-like, but with an underlying clarity that prevents it from dissolving into mere ambience. This attention to texture, so central to the lineage of Brazilian guitar, from João Gilberto’s whispered rhythms to Horta’s shimmering harmonies, is what gives the album its distinctive resonance. The arrangements, delicate and nearly invisible at times, seem to carry faint echoes of Brazilian voices past and present, like a morning mist weaving through distant hills.
In the broader landscape of recent Brazilian instrumental releases, projects by Hamilton de Holanda, Chico Pinheiro, or the younger generation exploring post-choro and post-MPB aesthetics, Montero’s album occupies a different register. It is less concerned with virtuosity or genre-specific tradition, and more with the intimate act of weaving eras together. While many contemporary records emphasize rhythmic exuberance or technical brilliance, Todos Os Tempos leans toward reflection, nuance and slow-burning architecture. Its power comes from detail, from restraint, from the quiet determination not to dazzle but to reveal.
What Montero brings that feels new is precisely this synthesis: a way of making Brazilian instrumental music breathe in multiple temporalities at once. His work honors the past without being nostalgic, embraces the present without chasing trend, and suggests a horizon where Brazilian guitar continues to evolve as a global language. He does not try to modernize tradition; rather, he shows how tradition has always been modern, how the meeting of popular and “learned” forms, so fundamental to Brazil, can still yield fresh shapes when entrusted to a musician who listens deeply.
The title Todos Os Tempos is not merely poetic; it is descriptive. The album feels like a conversation across eras and sensibilities, shaped by a musician raised in a household overflowing with art, his mother Irene, a painter with a keen ear for repetition and discipline; his father Endo, a musician who taught him intention, expression, and the emotional weight of a single note. With such an inheritance, it seems almost inevitable that Roberto Montero would emerge as a composer of delicate balance and striking subtlety, inhabiting the crossroads where memory meets invention.
Rather than making grand statements, Todos Os Tempos invites the listener into a world of precision and quiet clarity. It is an album that whispers rather than declares, but its voice stays with you, lingering like a chord whose resonance refuses to fade.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, November 20th 2025
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Musicians :
Roberto Montero: acoustic & electric guitar, vocal (synth guitar, bass & percussion on track 1, 10), (cavaco on track 3, 5), (additional perc. on track 5)
Featuring (in alphabetical order by last name):
Philip Bynoe: bass (track 5)
Léo Costa: drums (track 1)
Willian Góe: drums (track 3, 8)
Evandro Hasse: trombone (track 8)
Munyungo Jackson: udu & percussion (track 5)
Catina Deluna: vocal (track 4)
Arnou De Melo: bass (track 3, 8)
Rique Pantoja: piano and rhodes (track 1, 3, 6, 10)
Otmaro Ruiz: piano (track 4)
Osmar Schulze “Peninha”: drums (track 5, 10)
Vocals on track 8 (in order of “appearance”): Louise Lucena, Dorian Holley, Beth Rohde. Vocal group on track 8 (in alphabetical order by last name): Leandro Amaral, Cleuma Lima, Sergio Mielniczenko, Endo Luis Montero, Silvia Nicolatto, Lynda Reed.
Track Listing :
Igarapé (Caminho de Canoa)/ River Stream (Way of The Canoe)
Valsa do Tempo Parado/ Static Time Waltz
Vila Rica
Bom Balaio/ Hamper Box
Luz da Lua/ Light of the Moon
Chorando de Rir/ Laughing ’till it Hurts
Nem Tempo Nem Distância/ Neither Time Nor Distance
De Duas, Uma/ One Out of Two
Aquele Mar/ The Sea Over There
Vou Mas Fico/ Gone But Still Here