Bola Sete

Bola Sete, the Brazilian guitarist and composer born Djalma de Andrade in Rio de Janeiro in 1923, developed a singularly improvisational approach that fused Brazilian idioms with flamenco, classical music, jazz, American folk, bossa nova, and pop. His nickname, meaning the seventh ball—the sole black one—in billiards, originated because he was the only Black musician in a small ensemble. From youth he frequented Praça Tiradentes in Rio, the gathering spot for local players. At seventeen he entered composer Henricão’s group for an eight-month engagement in Marília, then performed across Campinas SP and Niterói RJ. In 1945 he won Rio’s Rádio Transmissora violão contest and later secured a contract with the station, appearing for three years in the Trem da Alegria production at João Caetano Theater alongside Lamartine Babo, Iara Sales, and Héber de Bôscoli.

He subsequently assembled Bola Sete e Seu Conjunto; singer-composer Dolores Durán, then employed at the Béguin nightclub, joined the unit at the Drink and Vogue venues. Between 1952 and 1954 he worked clubs and hotels in Italy, returned to Brazil to form an orchestra that toured Argentina, Uruguay, and Spain, and in 1955 performed in Lima, Peru, and Santiago, Chile. After relocating to the United States in 1959, Sete recorded the 1960 Sinter LP Bola Sete and the Odeon album Bola Sete e 4 Trombones, which contained his originals alongside Gershwin standards. In 1962 he appeared at the landmark Bossa Nova Festival at Carnegie Hall, played the Village Gate and Vanguard, and saw Odeon Brasil issue O Extraordinário Bola Sete while Fantasy released his American debut, Bossa Nova.

That same year the Sheraton Hotels general manager engaged him for the chain’s properties; while performing at New York’s Park Sheraton and later the Sheraton Palace in San Francisco, he met Dizzy Gillespie, who invited him into the band. Their collaboration included a triumphant appearance at the Ninth Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. Following further work with Gillespie, Sete settled again in San Francisco and joined Vince Guaraldi’s trio, an alliance that produced the 1963 Fantasy album Vince Guaraldi, Bola Sete & Friends and continued through 1967. He next formed an all-Brazilian trio with bassist Tião Neto and drummer Chico Batera; their 1966 Monterey Jazz Festival set yielded the charting Verve album Bola Sete at the Monterey Jazz Festival. Additional 1966 appearances took place at the Fillmore Auditorium November 11–13.

Fantasy issued Tour de Force and From All Sides (with Guaraldi) in 1964, The Solo Guitar of Bola Sete and The Incomparable Bola Sete in 1965, Live at El Matador (with Guaraldi) and Autentico in 1966, and the Latin-jazz landmark Shebaba in 1969. Paramount released Workin’ on a Groovy Thing in 1971 and Columbia brought out Goin’ to Rio in 1973. On John Fahey’s Takoma label Sete recorded the solo-guitar album Ocean in 1975 at his Marin County home; Fahey later licensed it to Sonet in 1976 and to Lost Lake Arts in 1981. His final lifetime release, the 1985 Dancing Cat solo album Jungle Suite, was produced by George Winston.

Sete died in 1987 at age sixty-four from complications of lung cancer and pneumonia. His widow Anne Sete established Samba Moon Records in 1998 to reissue catalog material and issue archival recordings. The label’s inaugural release, Ocean Memories (1999), combined Ocean with eight previously unreleased tracks intended for a never-completed sequel. Shambala Moon (2001) paired Jungle Suite with its title track; Live at Grace Cathedral (2004) documented the May 21, 1976 solo concert; Windspell (2008) drew from final-year home recordings plus 1971 Boarding House tracks; The Crystal Garden (2011) repackaged Goin’ to Rio with five unissued session cuts; and The Kitchen Tapes (2014), produced by Winston, collected fourteen pieces, most taped in a San Francisco kitchen in 1959 by Al Cunningham, together with 1971 hollow-body electric performances and home-studio material.

In 2021 Tompkins Square issued the three-disc set Samba in Seattle [Live at the Penthouse 1966–1968], compiled by Zev Feldman and Josh Rosenthal from Jim Wilke radio-broadcast tapes with Anne Sete’s full cooperation; the package contained the concerts, rare photographs, and essays by Greg Casseus, George Winston, Lalo Schifrin, John Fahey, and Feldman, who also interviewed Anne Sete and Carlos Santana.