Moacir Santos

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Moacir José dos Santos (born July 26, 1926 in Flores , † August 6, 2006 in Pasadena ) was a Brazilian arranger , songwriter , film composer , singer and saxophonist . He is considered an important arranger who renewed the harmonies of the Música Popular Brasileira in the 1950s .

Live and act

Santos, who grew up as an orphan, was initially influenced by the local band Flores do Pajeú ; After receiving lessons from their director Paixão, he became a member at the age of 14 to play saxophone, clarinet, trumpet, banjo, guitar and drums. Two years later he left the group to work in northeastern Brazil until 1943; then he was employed at Rádio Clube de Pernambuco . In 1945 he belonged to the orchestra of the military police in Paraíba, then to the jazz band of Rádio Tabajara da Paraíba , whose conductor he became in 1947. In 1948 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he worked in the Clube Brasil Danças - first as a saxophonist, then as musical director and arranger. He was also employed by Rádio Nacional as a soloist in the Orquestra do Maestro Chiquinho until 1967. After training with Hans-Joachim Koellreutter , he also became one of the arrangers for Rádio Nacional in 1951 .

In 1954 Santos went to São Paulo, where he directed the TV Record orchestra . Two years later he became the orchestra leader at Copacabana Discos . He also arranged for Vinicius de Moraes and other artists. He wrote the music for several feature films such as Os Fuzis (1964) and Ganga Zumba (1963). It was not until 1964 that Santos released his debut album Luiza . In 1967 he left Rádio Nacional and moved to the USA, where he gave music lessons in Pasadena before he was discovered by Horace Silver . In 1968 Henry Mancini brought him to his film music team. His album Maestro (1972) was nominated for a Grammy . More albums followed.

He wrote songs like "Nanã" (together with Mário Teles), which was recorded more than 150 times (among others by Herbie Mann , Gil Evans and Kenny Burrell ) or "Coisas"; with Vinicius de Moraes, who featured him in his “Samba da Benção”, he wrote “Triste de Quem”, “Menino Travesso”, “Se Você Disser Que Sim” and “Lembre-Se”.

In 1985 he opened the I Free Jazz Festival together with Radamés Gnattali in Rio de Janeiro . In 1996 he was honored for his services as an officer of the Rio Branco Order . The original arrangements of numerous songs by Santos were transcribed by Mário Adnet and Zé Nogueira and published several times live in with Milton Nascimento , João Bosco , Joyce , João Donato , Djavan , Gilberto Gil , Ed Motta and Santos on the double album Ouro Negro (2001) Brazil presented.

Allmusic counts Paulo Moura , Oscar Castro-Neves , Baden Powell , Maurício Einhorn , Geraldo Vespar , Bola Sete , Sérgio Mendes , Dom Um Romão , João Donato , Roberto Menescal , Carlos Lyra , Dori Caymmi , Airto Moreira and Flora Purim among his students.

Discography

  • 1964: Luiza (RCA Victor)
  • 1965: Coisas (Forma)
  • 1972: Maestro ( Blue Note , with Clare Fischer , Don Menza , Ray Pizzi , Joe Pass and others)
  • 1974: Saudade (Blue Note)
  • 1975: Carnival of the Spirits (Blue Note)
  • 1979: Opus 3, No. 1 (Discovery, rec. 1968/1978)
  • 2004: Ouro Negro (Adventure Music)
  • 2005: Choros & Alegria (Adventure Music)
with Kenny Burrell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ IMDb gives, like the short biography cited under 3, with April 4, 1924, a different date of birth
  2. ^ Obituary New York Times , August 14, 2006
  3. ↑ Short biography
personal data
SURNAME Santos, Moacir
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Santos, Moacir José dos (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian arranger, songwriter, film composer, singer and saxophonist
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Flores
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 2006
Place of death Pasadena