Johnny Alf

Johnny Alf is a true genius, unfortunately he is also highly underestimated. He introduced Brazil to a new way of singing, playing, and composing several years before the term "bossa nova" was coined. Tom Jobim, Leny Andrade, Luís Eça, Carlos Lyra, and all those who came after had some Alf influences. Always rejecting the label bossa nova, Alf focused on his artistic achievements and let go of the music press, which continued ignoring him. His importance in Brazilian popular music as a fundamental precursor is still to be properly regarded, while he has been frequently recorded by international musicians such as Lalo Schifrin ("Rapaz de Bem"). In Brazil, his playing is registered on 46 albums, singles, compilations, and participations, but he has recorded only nine solo LPs or CDs in his career. His father, an Army sub-official, died in 1932. His mother had to work as a washerwoman in a family home where Johnny was accepted and raised as a son, together with Luís Paulo Ribeiro, the family's own son. Alf began his piano studies at nine with a family friend, Geni Borges. Soon, he demonstrated interest for North American composers, such as George Gershwin and Cole Porter, and for unnoticed Brazilian revolutionaries such as Garoto, Custódio Mesquita, Lúcio Alves, and Gilberto Milfont, together with the famous Dick Farney. At 14, he formed a group with friends in Vial Isabel, playing on weekends in Andaraí. Studying at the Pedro II school, he was invited by his colleagues to join the cultural meetings promoted by the Brasil-U.S. Institute Ibeu. They met weekly to listen and discuss jazz music and to see jazz movies, concerts, etc. At that time, Alf was working as an accountant assistant and was already writing music. At 18, he enlisted; a little after, in 1949, Dick Farney...