CUSTÓDIO CASTELO
The music is, above all, an act of love
Like Carlos Paredes, Custódio Castelo created new melodies and promoted the
Portuguese Guitar to a concert instrument that can be played solo or as
accompaniment.
“Custódio Castelo is indeed one of the most significant references for the renovation
of the Portuguese guitar in the last two decades…”
(Rui Vieira Nery)
Born in Almeirim on the 23rd December 1966, Custódio Castelo built (and played
with) his first musical instrument at the age of seven. When he was thirteen
someone offered him a “real” instrument, an acoustic guitar, which enabled him to
join both bands that played Portuguese popular music and rock bands. When he
was 13, he discovered the sound of the Portuguese guitar through the CDs of
Amália Rodrigues and soon it became his chosen instrument. Since early times
Castelo was considered a wonder due both to the audacious form he played the
Portuguese guitar and to the talent he showed, which was acknowledged by famous
names of traditional fado, such as D. Vicente da Câmara, Manuel de Almeida,
Fernado Farinha, among others.
At the age of 18 he starts composing and two years later Jorge Fernando invites
him to record an album, thus beginning a musical partnership that keeps going on
until today. Custódio Castelo accompanied Jorge Fernando in every fado CDs, they
both recorded and produced works for artists like Argentina Santos, Mariza, Ana
Moura, Maria da Fé. Gonçalo Salgueiro, Fernando Maurício, Raquel Tavares, among
others.
“Fortunately there are several composers, some of them coming from rather
unusual areas, who have contributed to the vitality of fado. Custódio Castelo is,
undoubtedly, one of our greatest talents, capable of the most sophisticated pieces.
In “The future of Saudade” by Manuel Halpern
Custódio Castelo is, by nature, a man who never gets tired when learning from
those who believe doubt is always more creative than the final certainty. The way
he plays the guitar shows a trend to preciousness and to a melody-way inspired in
the sound of the violin.
“The Castelo’s compositions in Portuguese guitar are the most creative ever
composed, and they approach the classical music.”
In “The future of Saudade” by Manuel Halpern
Due to his expertise and to the beauty of the sounds he gets from the guitar,
Custódio Castelo breaks barriers among eventually different musical languages. He
records the album “Only early in the night” with the Symphonic Orchestra of
Lithuania and shares the stage with several musicians and singers of other areas:
Richard Galliano (accordion), Arrigo Cappelletti (pianist), André Dequech (piano).
Daniele di Bonaventura (Bandoneón), Davide Zacaria (Cello), Ben Wolf (Bass),
Leonard Amuedo (classical guitar), Olga Pratz (piano), Cármen Linares, Ana
Salazar…
As a soloist, Castelo carried his virtuosity and brilliant compositions to the world’s
most famous music festivals as, for example, the International Festival of Belo
Horizonte (Brasil), World Music Festival of Philadelphia (USA), International Festival
of Rabat (Morocco), North Sea Jazz Festival (Dan Hag, Haia), Festival du Sud
(France).
“He stands between the classic and the modern, between tradition and innovation.
Beautiful and perfect, that is how we define the music of Cristina Branco, where the
Portuguese guitar of the master called Custódio Castelo stands out and who is also
the main composer of original themes interpreted by this singer. Sensational”
In A Trompa
The constant and tireless quest for the re-invention of the Portuguese guitar leads
him to the creation of the project “Cristina Branco” where both the musician and
the composer reach international recognition due to a new and bold form to
conceiving music. Nowadays he is recognized by the irreverent way he tackles the
themes, by the new environments he has created to the so called traditional fados
and by the merging of the Portuguese guitar with other sounds. Besides several
world tournées, seven CDs were recorded within this project: “Live in Holland”
(1997), “Whispers” (1998), which got in France the prize “choc de l’année du
Monde de la Musique in the category of “World Music”;
Though Castelo’s versatility never allowed him to be solely a fado accompanist,
least because he never followed strictly the fado’s canons,it is important to
highlight his participation in: “Claws of the senses” of Mísia – becoming thus his
main accompanist for two years; “In life’s line”, of Camané, after which there was a
tournée with Camané and Carlos do Carmo; the last concerts of Amália Rodrigues
in the USA and the accompaniment of Mafalda Arnaulth in “The Royal Hope Charity
Gala”, with Sarah Brightmann, the Royal Ballet, Plácido Domingoand Joaquim
Cortes.
In 2004 a health problem emerges (rupture of ligaments in his right shoulder)
followed by an unexpected surgery. Everyone feared an early ending of a brilliant
career. At such extremely difficult stage for someone who lives for the music
Castelo gather together a few friends and musicians who always had accompanied
him: Jorge Fernendo, Alexandre Silva, Fernando Maia, Gilberto Silva, Marino de
Freitas, Miguel Carvalhinho, Carlos Manuel Proença, Carlos Velez, Cajé, Filipe
Larsen and entered the studio aiming at registering his lifetime working. With an
extreme difficulty to performing whatever it was and living a tense environment he
acted as if it was saying goodbye to his guitar. Thus it was born “Tempus”, a genial
CD, which unfortunately has never been available in Portugal.
However, both the music and the guitar are a passion that Custódio Castelo lives
with intensity and after a difficult and remarkable recuperation, he comes back to
work. At the beginning of 2005 he records pieces of Ana Moura, Jorge Fernando,
Gonçalo Salgueiro, Raquel Tavares and João Chora. Together with Ana Moura and
Jorge Fernando he is invited by Tim Ries to record two themes (Brown Sugar and
No Expectation) in the second volume of “The Rolling Stones Project”.
Between the stage and the studio – at the moment he prepares His next CD called
“Ventus” – Custódio Castelo teaches since 2008 his first degree course of
Portuguese Guitar of ESART, in Castelo Branco, with the purpose to giving this his
instrument the recognition it deserves and to which Custódio Castelo has devoted
all his life.