Biography
Although long eclipsed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and, to a smaller degree, João Gilberto, Luiz Bonfá stood at the creation of bossa nova itself. At least two of his compositions, the haunting “Manha de Carnaval” and the equally evocative “Samba de Orpheus,” had already swept across the globe a full three years before Jobim’s pieces achieved worldwide reach, thereby clearing the path for the initial Brazilian wave. At the same time Bonfá developed a delicate, exacting classical-guitar technique that remained closer to traditional samba pulse than to the lighter Gilberto/Jobim bossa-nova inflection. Born beside Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro to an Italian-immigrant father, he began playing guitar at age eleven and later studied classical technique with the Uruguayan master Isaias Savio. He first performed in Rio clubs as vocalist with the Quitandinha Serenaders and, by 1946, had become a regular on Brazil’s Radio Nacional. From 1957 onward he divided his schedule between New York City and Rio, traveling the United States with singer Mary Martin while composing and recording Brazilian film scores. The decisive moment arrived in 1959 when director Marcel Camus commissioned songs for his screen adaptation of the play Orfeo do Carnaval, later released as Black Orpheus. Camus initially dismissed “Manha de Carnaval” as the principal theme, yet after Bonfá supplied a weaker replacement the composer insisted on restoring the first melody; the piece ultimately entered the global pop, jazz, and folk repertoire. Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s Bonfá issued numerous albums aimed at American listeners on EMI Odeon (Capitol), Dot, Atlantic, Cook, Philips, Epic, and Verve; his songs also figured prominently on the Jazz Samba Encore album alongside Jobim and Stan Getz. His writing reached unexpected quarters, among them the schmaltzy “Almost in Love” written for Elvis Presley and featured in the 1968 film Live a Little, Love a Little. After the decade closed, Bonfá’s visibility in the United States declined sharply, though he kept touring and composing until he had completed more than fifty albums. He reappeared in American record stores in 1989 with Non-Stop to Brazil on Chesky, followed by the ravishing The Bonfá Magic in 1991 (issued domestically on Milestone) and 1993’s Moods on GSP. The original Black Orpheus soundtrack remains available on a Verve CD, offering a direct glimpse of Bonfá and Jobim igniting the worldwide Brazilian-music explosion. On 12 January 2001 Luiz Bonfá succumbed to cancer in Rio de Janeiro.
Albums
