by Thom JurekFor all of his prodigious output (literally dozens of albums) and his widely celebrated artistry as a guitarist, bandleader, interpreter of popular songs from many traditions, and composer (of two of the breakthrough bossa film soundtrack Black Orpheus' most seminal cuts, no less), no Luiz Bonfá recording reaches the dizzying -- if gently stated -- heights of his acumen in the way Introspection does. Recorded in 1972, this album features eight of Bonfá's own compositions played on solo guitar, whether the nylon-string he established his reputation on, the electric six-string, or a specially designed 12-string. The deep emotion in each track, dovetailed with his lushly articulated phrasings in spare passages of warm, languid, sometimes somber, and always deeply romantic poetic imagery, is heart-searing. From the elegance of his classical enunciations on"Enchanted Mirror," where each line is mirrored with chromatic counterpoint, to the shifting scalar morphing in"Reflections," to the gloriously complex yet seamless and edgeless harmonic interplay of"Rain," to the shimmering Charlie Byrd and Django Reinhardt quotations in"Leque," Bonfá's guitar artistry is total. But more than this, these compositions sing; they carry the fire and intervallic dimensionality of sonatas and the human ambiguities of song. Introspection may be the one title -- if you can only have one -- in Bonfá's catalog to own. It not only stands as his best work but, along with Bola Sete's Shambhala Moon, may be the best guitar recording in the history of Latin music.