Seems like we’ve had a good thing going, posting Julian Bream and/or John Williams performances each Sunday for the past month-plus, so why stop now? Here’s another masterful JW performance, this time featuring a well-known waltz by Paraguayan composer Agustín Barrios (1885–1944). Williams first recorded a Barrios piece in 1973 (Danza Paraguaya No. 1, on his album Music from England, Japan, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico; what, no “Paraguay”?) and four years later put out an entire album of Barrios works (Barrios), which probably gave the composer his greatest exposure up that point. Williams recorded this particular Vals twice: for his 1983 Portrait of John Williams album; and again more than a decade later for his second all-Barrios album, The Great Paraguayan (1995). This is from a TV appearance Williams made on a special hosted by the great jazz singer Cleo Lane, a close friend of Williams’ since the early 1960s. (They even recorded a couple of albums together, including one called Best Friends.) —Blair Jackson
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