Deodato

Eumir Deodato has participated as pianist/keyboardist, producer, or arranger in over 450 albums, and has won 16 platinum records. The list of top artists with whom he has collaborated is too extensive to cite, but includes Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Tom Jobim, Wes Montgomery, João Donato, Kool & the Gang (group with which he played between 1979 and 1983), Earth, Wind & Fire, and Michael Franks. He has also worked on the soundtracks of major films, like The Onion Field, The Exorcist, and many others. Artists who have recorded his compositions include Sarah Vaughan, Milt Jackson, Joe Pass, George Benson, Lee Ritenour, Perez Prado, and the Emotions. At 12, Deodato started to learn the accordion. Two years later he began his studies on piano, orchestration, arrangement, and conducting, and started playing in dances and nightclubs. In 1959, he became a member of Roberto Menescal's and Durval Ferreira's groups, playing bossa nova. His earliest compositions are from that period. In 1962 he formed his first group, which had Roberto Menescal as a member. Leaving the group, Deodato started to write arrangements for Odeon as a freelancer, having worked in the earliest albums by Wilson Simonal and Marcos Valle. In 1964 he did the arrangements and conduction of the LP Inútil Paisagem and recorded the LP Os Gatos. With Os Catedráticos, Deodato recorded the LPs Impulso! Samba (1964), Tremendão (1964), and Ataque, which contained his compositions "Ataque" and "Razão de Viver" (with Paulo Sérgio Valle). He was a member of the committee that selected the compositions to be presented in the earliest editions of the historic FIC (International Song Festival). Having selected three songs by Milton Nascimento for the II FIC (1967), he is considered to having being responsible for the...