Arnaldo DeSouteiro

In Brazilian jazz circles, Arnaldo DeSouteiro commands the sort of respect and admiration that Orrin Keepnews and Quincy Jones enjoy in the United States -- he is a heavyweight producer who has worked with his share of major Brazilian artists, just as Keepnews and Jones are famous for the American artists they've worked with. The list of Brazilian stars DeSouteiro has produced includes Joćo Gilberto, Luiz Bonfį, Dom Um Romao, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, Yana Purim, Mario Castro-Neves, and Joćo Donato, among many others. Comparisons to Keepnews and Jones are valid not only because of DeSouteiro's work as producer, but also because of the historic perspective he brings to the table; DeSouteiro is a musicologist/historian who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Brazilian music (both jazz and pop) as well as non-Brazilian jazz and the European classical tradition. DeSouteiro could spend hours talking about the many styles of music that have come from Brazil, and he is knowledgeable of everything from bossa nova, samba, and tropicalismo (also known as tropicalia) to choro, forro, baićo, and lambada. He is well-versed in Rio de Janeiro styles as well as the Afro-Brazilian music that comes from Bahia and other parts of Northeastern Brazil. However, DeSouteiro isn't as old as either Jones or Keepnews; both of them are old enough to be his father. DeSouteiro (who is fluent in both Portuguese and English) was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 23, 1963. His mother is veteran classical pianist Delza Agricola, who did a lot to encourage her son's interest in music. By the time DeSouteiro was 16 in 1979, he was freelancing as a music journalist and was writing a weekly column for Tribuna da Imprensa (one of Rio's daily newspapers). He went on to freelance for a variety of other...