Brazilian composer and pianist João Donato accepts the very best Latin jazz album award on the eleventh Annual Latin Grammy Awards, on Nov. 11, 2010, in Las Vegas.
Julie Jacobson/AP
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Julie Jacobson/AP
Brazilian composer and pianist João Donato accepts the very best Latin jazz album award on the eleventh Annual Latin Grammy Awards, on Nov. 11, 2010, in Las Vegas.
Julie Jacobson/AP
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian composer and pianist João Donato, who helped lay the groundwork for bossa nova however all through his profession defied confinement to any single style, died Monday. He was 88.
His loss of life was introduced on his verified Instagram account. Native media reported that he had been hospitalized and intubated with pneumonia.
Donato was prolific and ingenious, collaborating with prime artists at dwelling and overseas, together with Chet Baker, João Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, Tito Puente, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and numerous others.
“Right now we misplaced one among our biggest and most artistic composers,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote on Twitter. “João Donato noticed music in all the things. He innovated, he handed by way of samba, bossa nova, jazz, forro and within the combination of rhythm constructed one thing distinctive. He saved creating and innovating till the top.”
Donato was born within the Amazonian state of Acre on Brazil’s western border, removed from the cultural hubs of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. He confirmed prodigious musical capacity as a boy upon receiving an accordion as a Christmas reward and shortly after his household moved to Rio started enjoying professionally.
He floated between two rival jazz fan golf equipment, enjoying at each, making contacts and leaving an impression. He started recording with ensembles and his personal compositions.
Amongst his best-known songs have been “A ra” (The Frog), “Bananeira” (Banana Tree) and “Minha Saudade” (My Longing).
At occasions he confirmed reluctance to place lyrics to his music. A number of weeks in the past on his Instagram account, he recalled telling Gilberto Gil {that a} melody of his might don’t have any lyrics. “And also you, generously and kindly, mentioned, ‘It does, it does, it does/all the things does/it all the time does …’ “
On Monday, Gil recorded a video of himself with a guitar, sharing one other occasion of Donato coming to him with a catchy melody that he had created, however in want of lyrics.
Donato’s syncopation influenced the guitar beat developed by João Gilberto that blossomed into the bossa nova motion. By that point, Donato had set off to play within the U.S., first in Lake Tahoe after which Los Angeles. He spent 13 years dwelling there, generally returning to Brazil to report bossa nova tracks because the model grew to become a world craze.
However within the U.S. he additionally recorded the album “A Unhealthy Donato,” which fused jazz, funk and soul. Knowledgeable by the sounds he heard from James Brown, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, it was indicative of the eclecticism all through his profession.
Music critic Irineu Franco Perpetuo mentioned Donato’s music usually options “scorching” rhythms inviting one to bounce, fairly than bossa nova’s subdued and melancholy sway.
“He was bigger than life, flamboyant, extroverted, so he cannot be put within the bossa nova field. He had a temperament that went past the restrained vibe of bossa nova,” Perpetuo mentioned in a phone interview. “He introduced that exuberant rhythm. He’s vital in bossa nova, however he went past.”
Ultimately, Donato returned to Rio, and continued collaborating and recording for many years.
“A delicate and distinctive man, creator of his personal model with a piano that was completely different than all the things I had seen earlier than. Candy, exact and profound,” singer Marisa Monte, who partnered with Donato extra just lately, wrote on Twitter.
Individuals passing in entrance of his bayside dwelling in Rio’s Urca neighborhood, beneath Sugarloaf mountain, might snoop on him enjoying inside. He launched an album final yr, and was nonetheless enjoying exhibits earlier this yr.
“I am not bossa nova, I am not samba, I am not jazz, I am not rumba, I am not forro. In reality, I am all of that on the similar time,” Donato instructed the Rio newspaper O Globo in a 2014 interview.
Donato’s wake might be held at Rio’s municipal theater.
