Assad Brothers bring Latin rhythms to Las Vegas

Sergio teaches at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Odair’s based in Brussels, where he teaches at the Ecole Superieure des Arts.

But the Brazil-born Assad Brothers have been playing guitar together for 50 years, so mere physical proximity’s not a concern.

Besides, they know their next reunion is as close as their next engagement — which happens to be this weekend at The Smith Center’s intimate Cabaret Jazz.

Joining them for “Samba Exotico” will be jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo.

The classically trained Assads first played The Smith Center in 2012, when they joined superstar cellist Y0-Yo Ma in Reynolds Hall. (At the concert, Ma jokingly introduced them by noting that he and longtime accompanist Kathryn Stott were “the opening act for tonight’s main attraction, the Assad Brothers.”)

A year later, the Assads — including Sergio’s daughter Clarice — made their Cabaret Jazz debut and discovered “it’s an amazing room,” Sergio Assad says.

Granted, it’s more of “a jazz space,” and “that’s more of (Lubambo’s) thing,” Assad says in a telephone interview.

But, as experienced genre-jumpers, the Assads don’t pay much attention to musical labels.

Consider their collaborations with everyone from the aforementioned Ma to soprano Dawn Upshaw and violinists Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Gidon Kremer.

Or consider the set list for this weekend’s performances, which includes a musical mash-up of a Frederic Chopin prelude and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Insensatez” that shows “two sides of the music,” Assad explains.

Also on the program: works by Brazil’s own Heitor Villa-Lobos — and the New York-based Lubambo, who’s “a good colleague and a great guitarist,” Assad says.

Throughout the program, there will be plenty of room for improvisation.

Especially between the Assad Brothers, who began their guitar studies in Brazil with guitarist and lutenist Monina Tavora, a disciple of legendary Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia.

The young Assads made their TV debut in 1965 on the Brazilian TV show “Boussaude.”

Their first international splash came in 1979, when they captured a major prize at the Young Artists Competition in Bratislava (then in Czechoslovakia, now the capital of Slovakia).

Since then, their accolades have ranged from Latin Grammy Awards to a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guitar Foundation of America.

Along the way, the Assad Brothers have earned such raves as “the best two-guitar team in existence, maybe even in history” (according to the Washington Post) and “two persons, four hands, one mind” (to quote the Seattle Post-Intelligencer).

Playing together since boyhood has enabled them to develop “a mutual understanding,” Assad explains. “You have to understand the breathing, the phrasing of your partner.”

That way, “you can sort of improvise,” he adds. “It’s sort of thrilling.”

Not just for the Assads, but for the audiences who have listened, enraptured, throughout their careers.

Although their repertoire ranges from baroque to jazz, the brothers’ Cabaret Jazz shows will focus on syncopated Latin rhythms Assad describes as “very polyphonic.”

Coming from a musical family, it was hardly a surprise that Sergio and Odair would be musical, too.

As kids, “we caused a certain sensation,” he recalls.

But they never imagined that, 50 years after their debut, they’d be still playing professionally, Assad admits.

“We enjoy it,” he says simply. “It’s a hobby, but a profession.”

And “we really like the collaboration,” Assad adds. “We always try to keep it fresh.”

They could hardly do otherwise, considering their eclectic musical instincts.

“We discover, to be a musician today, it’s fantastic,” Assad says. “We live in a global world,” and while music may be a universal language, “still, music has different accents.”

For more stories from Carol Cling go to bestoflasvegas.com. Contact her at ccling@reviewjournal.com and follow @CarolSCling on Twitter.