Biography
Despite passing away at the age of 41, Erlon Chaves figured prominently in the 1960s and 1970s both through his involvement in mounting the first landmark music festivals and through his work as arranger, conductor, and instrumentalist on recordings and stage productions featuring major Brazilian and foreign performers. He joined Elis Regina for her 1968 appearances at the Olympia in Paris. Alongside Paul Mauriat he cut an album that included the Brazilian numbers “Águas de Março” (Tom Jobim), “Como Dois e Dois” (Caetano Veloso), “Construção” (Chico Buarque), “Dona Chica” (Dorival Caymmi), and “Testamento” (Toquinho/Vinícius). Late in the 1950s he also scored a hit as a vocalist with the calypso “Matilda.”
Having begun music lessons at seven at the Music Conservatory Carlos Gomes in São Paulo while performing on Rádio Difusora, Chaves earned his piano diploma in 1950 and pursued additional training in voice, harmony, and conducting. As a child he already appeared on television and took an acting part in the film Quase no Céu. He turned professional that same year, working clubs and absorbing jazz vocabulary through engagements in gafieiras. His composition “Sinfonia” served for years as the signature theme of TV Excelsior, where he remained until 1965. After relocating to Rio he joined the staffs of TV Tupi and TV Rio, rose to music director, and helped establish the inaugural I Festival Internacional da Canção in 1966, for which he supplied a melody still employed in Globo Networks festivals. At the V FIC staged by TV Globo in 1970 he led a forty-piece choir whose performances gave rise to Jorge Ben Jor’s Banda Veneno; under Chaves’s direction the ensemble enjoyed a prosperous recording career that ended with his death.
Having begun music lessons at seven at the Music Conservatory Carlos Gomes in São Paulo while performing on Rádio Difusora, Chaves earned his piano diploma in 1950 and pursued additional training in voice, harmony, and conducting. As a child he already appeared on television and took an acting part in the film Quase no Céu. He turned professional that same year, working clubs and absorbing jazz vocabulary through engagements in gafieiras. His composition “Sinfonia” served for years as the signature theme of TV Excelsior, where he remained until 1965. After relocating to Rio he joined the staffs of TV Tupi and TV Rio, rose to music director, and helped establish the inaugural I Festival Internacional da Canção in 1966, for which he supplied a melody still employed in Globo Networks festivals. At the V FIC staged by TV Globo in 1970 he led a forty-piece choir whose performances gave rise to Jorge Ben Jor’s Banda Veneno; under Chaves’s direction the ensemble enjoyed a prosperous recording career that ended with his death.
Albums
