Dori Caymmi

Renowned globally as a composer and vocalist, Dori Caymmi maintains an extensive catalog that prominent performers around the world have interpreted, while also establishing a distinguished record as an arranger and producer who has supplied music for film scores.

Born to composer Dorival Caymmi and former singer Stella Maris (Adelaide Tostes Caymmi), he began piano lessons at age eight under Lúcia Branco and continued later with Nise Poggi Obino. He took music theory at the Conservatório Lorenzo Fernandez and studied harmony under Paulo Silva and Moacir Santos. His stage debut came in 1959 when he accompanied his sister Nana. The following year he entered the Grupo dos Sete and supplied music for televised plays. In December 1964 he served as musical director and played violão for the landmark production Opinião at the Rio theater of the same name, an event that marked the close of bossa nova and launched MPB through protest songs. In 1966 he directed the music for Arena Conta Zumbi during its Carioca run. Between 1964 and 1966 he produced Philips sessions for Edu Lobo, Eumir Deodato, and Nara Leão. He appeared in 1965 at Rio’s Bottle’s nightclub in Beco das Garrafas alongside Francis Hime. The next year he performed at Teatro de Bolso with Hime, Wanda Sá, and Vinícius de Moraes. Teaming with Nelson Motta, he contributed several songs to Brazil’s historic festivals and earned repeated placements. Their composition “Saveiros,” sung by Nana Caymmi, took first place nationally and second internationally at the 1966 I FIC on TV Rio. In 1967 “Cantiga,” performed by MPB-4, finished ninth at the II FIC on TV Globo. Another signature work, “O Cantador” (“Like a lover”), later recorded by Flora Purim, Natalie Cole, and Sarah Vaughan, placed at TV Record’s III FMPB. The pair also wrote “De Onde Vens,” cut by Elis Regina and Nara Leão, and “Festa,” recorded by Jair Rodrigues, Elis Regina, and Sérgio Mendes.

He joined Paul Winter’s sextet as arranger and violonista and toured the United States and Canada with the group. The debut albums Domingo by Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa and Louvação by Gilberto Gil carried his musical direction and uncredited arrangements. Already acquainted with the baianos from Salvador, he joined Roberto Menescal and Edu Lobo in persuading Philips executive João Araújo to record the then-unknown Caetano and Gal; together with Menescal and Hime he crafted the arrangements. Caetano later described Caymmi as the finest Brazilian violonista after João Gilberto. At the center of the Tropicalista movement, he attended the pivotal gathering at Sérgio Ricardo’s home where Gil and Caetano sought support from him, Edu Lobo, Sidney Miller, Chico Buarque, Francis Hime, Paulinho da Viola, Torquato Neto, and Capinam; he declined, citing his aversion to the Beatles and pop music in general.

Among his film scores are the 1971 collaboration with Tom Jobim for Paulo César Sarraceni’s Crônica da Casa Assassinada, the 1973 partnership with Paulo César Pinheiro for Bruno Barreto’s Tati, a Garota, and the 1974 music for Paulo Tiago’s O Duelo. For TV Globo he composed the soundtrack to the 1975 novela Gabriela and to Sítio do Picapau Amarelo, which aired from 1977 to 1984. He has resided in Los Angeles since 1989, attributing the move, in his words, to “a lack of Brazilian identity in the mass production of easy listening hits.” In 1994 he appeared on Dionne Warwick’s Aquarela do Brasil and performed at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland with Toots Thielemans, Oscar Castro-Neves, Eliane Elias, Ricardo Silveira, and Toots’ Brazil Project, which also toured the United States and Europe. The following year he joined Gilberto Gil, Branford Marsalis, Herbie Mann, Paula Robinson, Eliane Elias, Joyce, Paulo, Daniel Jobim, Ottmar Liebert, Maúcha Adnet, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for a Carnegie Hall tribute to Tom Jobim on the first anniversary of the composer’s death and took part in the two subsequent concerts in the same venue. That year he also contributed to Edu Lobo’s Meia-Noite, the Songbook Edu Lobo on Lumiar, and the arrangements for Spike Lee’s Clockers. In 1996 he performed at Brazil’s Heineken Concerts, appeared with the Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica, and was featured on the Tom Jobim Songbook (Lumiar). He returned to Rio in 1997 to compose, orchestrate, and record the score for Fábio Barreto’s Bela Donna. Also that year he worked on the jazz project Sketches of James Taylor with Flora Purim and Airto Moreira, participated in Djavan’s Songbook (Lumiar), released the CD Toma Conta do meu Filho, que eu Também Já Fui do Mar…, and conducted the Orquestra Philarmonia Brasileira. His CD Romantic Vision earned a Grammy nomination for Best Arranger for Henry Mancini’s “Pink Panther.” The same year he played the Blue Note in New York.