Johnny Alf

Johnny Alf is usually a genuine genius, unfortunately he’s also highly underestimated. He launched Brazil to a fresh way of performing, playing, and composing many years prior to the term “bossa nova” was coined. Tom Jobim, Leny Andrade, Luís Eça, Carlos Lyra, and those who arrived after experienced some Alf affects. Usually rejecting the label bossa nova, Alf centered on his creative achievements and forget about the music press, which continuing disregarding him. His importance in Brazilian well-known music as a simple precursor continues to be to be correctly considered, while he continues to be frequently documented by international music artists such as for example Lalo Schifrin (“Rapaz de Bem”). In Brazil, his playing is usually authorized on 46 albums, singles, compilations, and participations, but he offers documented only nine single LPs or CDs in his profession. His dad, an Military sub-official, passed away in 1932. His mom had to are a washerwoman in a family group house where Johnny was approved and raised like a son, as well as Luís Paulo Ribeiro, the family’s personal son. Alf started his piano research at nine with a family group friend, Geni Borges. Shortly, he demonstrated curiosity for UNITED STATES composers, such as for example George Gershwin and Cole Porter, as well as for undetected Brazilian revolutionaries such as for example Garoto, Custódio Mesquita, Lúcio Alves, and Gilberto Milfont, alongside the well-known Dick Farney. At 14, he shaped an organization with close friends in Vial Isabel, playing on weekends in Andaraí. Their studies at the Pedro II college, he was asked by his co-workers to become listed on the cultural conferences promoted from the Brasil-U.S. Institute Ibeu. They fulfilled weekly to pay attention and discuss jazz music also to observe jazz films, concerts, etc. In those days, Alf was operating as an accountant associate and had been composing music. At 18, he enlisted; just a little after, in 1949, Dick Farney came back from his time of year within the U.S. Among the 1st (and certainly probably the most effective) singer to include jazz affects in his personal manifestation, Farney already experienced a lot of fans, individuals who had been avid in songs directions. The jazz conferences, welcoming Farney, used the name of Sinatra-Farney Lover Golf club, revering another currently important name in those occasions. Between the frequenters, there have been several names that could later be popular in music, such as for example Tom Jobim, Nora Ney, and Luís Bonfá, amongst others. He’d been a longtime a die-hard jazz enthusiast, jazz journalist José Domingos Raffaelli was also a longtime friend of Luís Paulo Ribeiro’s, whose house he, as well as other close friends, frequented frequently on Saturdays to pay attention and discuss music. Those encounters started in 1949 and in 1950, they developed another jazz enthusiast club, the Scorching Club perform Rio. Raffaelli accounted, in an exclusive testimony, of 1 of these musical conferences where he understood a youngster who lived using the family who was simply enlisted, but have been dealing with a tuberculosis. These were hearing a Crimson Rodney 10″ LP documented for Imperial, which the second monitor was Chopin’s “Minute” valse within a jazz rendition. Once the third monitor began, among the listeners commented, “Isto dá samba…” (loosely, “it could be converted into samba tempo”); Alf replied that that monitor couldn’t, however the previous you can. Challenged, he visited the piano and made up his masterpiece samba “Seu Chopin, Desculpe,” with lyrics and music carried out in only quarter-hour. Some months later on, Raffaelli fulfilled César de Alencar casually on the road as he was then your most widely used radio sponsor in Brazil. de Alencar informed him that he was starting a fresh nightclub and wanted a pianist who could sing both in Portuguese and British and wasn’t costly. Alf, who was simply earlier mentioned to de Alencar by Farney, was selected and started to play in the Cantina perform César, at Rua Rodolfo Dantas, Copacabana. Which was in 1950, when Tom Jobim was an unidentified who after his time gig would go directly to the Cantina perform César to understand those crazy harmonies, that brand-new comping design (motivated by Nat “Ruler” Cole’s), which new compositional design, having even officially asked Alf to instruct him. On the Cantina perform César, Alf was contacted by celebrity Mary Gonçalves, who’d been elected Queen of Radio of 1952. She included on her behalf debut record, Convite ao Love, four of Alf’s compositions, “Estamos Sós,” “O que é Amar,” “Podem Falar,” and “Escuta.” Alf after that visited the Monte Carlo nightclub, using violinist Fafá Lemos’ group. Alf’s initial documenting (for Sinter) schedules out of this period (Sept 1952), along with his “Falseta” associated with the fantastic Garoto (violão), and bassist Vidal. He also performed at nightclubs Mandarim, Clube da Chave, and Drink. Currently a renowned musician around the creative scenery, Alf started to play in the focal point from the nascent bossa nova, the Plaza nightclub in the Avenida Princesa Isabel. A gathering point for everyone thinking about jazz music, the Plaza was the cradle of bossa, not really the South part apartments generally linked within that, and Alf consolidated his placement there being a seminal impact in contemporary Brazilian music. In 1954, prior to the bossa motion boomed in Rio, Alf sensed segregated in the other musicians, therefore he transferred to São Paulo. His outstanding musicality frightened your competition. He mainly proceeded to go there to open up the nightclub Baiuquinha at Main Sertório. From then on, at Michel, he used the after that novices Paulinho Nogueira, Sabá, and Luís Chaves. In 1955, he documented a 78 rpm record for Copacabana Brasil, that is regarded as by many musicologists to become the 1st bossa nova recording, 3 years before João Gilberto’s Chega de Saudade. In 1961, he was asked by composer Chico Feitosa to execute in the historical Carnegie Hall Bossa Nova Event, but Alf refused the invitation. Which was the entire year he documented his 1st LP, Rapaz de Bem, for RCA. Another yr, he spent a time of year in Rio in the Bottle’s Pub, which also presented Sérgio Mendes, Luís Carlos Vinhas, Sílvia Telles, and Tamba Trio. Using the essential drummer Edison Machado and bassist Tião Neto, he created a trio that performed at the tiny Club and Best Golf club. In 1964, he documented the LP Diagonal (RCA) and in 1965, Johnny Alf (Mocambo). In 1967, his structure “European union e a Brisa” was offered at Television Record’s III FMPB (Brazilian well-known music event) by vocalist Márcia. Used by the tropicalista novelties of “Alegria, Alegria” (Caetano Veloso) and “Domingo no Parque” (Gilberto Gil), the jury neglected that melody, which only 1 month after would became one of the primary strikes of Alf’s profession. In 1971, he documented Ele é Johnny Alf for Parlophon. In 1974, he documented Nós (Odeon) and in 1978, Desbunde Total (Chantecler). From the studios through the entire 10 years of 1980, he documented a new record in 1990 for RCA, Olhos Negros. In 1997, as well as recognized arranger/pianist Leandro Braga, he documented an album focused on his personal interpretation of 1 of the very most traditional samba composers of Brazil — Noel Rosa — that was relatively ironic, as he was therefore often mistakenly thought to be an Americanized composer/performer. For the reason that calendar year, he also do tribute displays to Ary Barroso. In 1998, he documented live Cult Alf for Natasha. In 1999, he was commissioned for the structure of well-known theme music for bishop Dom Pedro Casaldáliga’s public poems as well as the creation was documented on the Compact disc As Sete Palavras de Cristo na Cruz (Paulinas). Also in 1999, Alf documented the Compact disc European union e a Bossa for Rob Digital, regretting in later on interviews the label’s selection of name and subtitle (40 Years of Bossa Nova). For the reason that yr, he was also the 20th designer granted for lifelong accomplishment having a Prêmio Shell. During all his existence, he has held a regular routine like a nightclub performer.