Walter Wanderley

Walter Wanderley was a talented and gifted organist with an acute ear for new harmonies. With 46 recorded solo albums in his entire career, both in Brazil and the U.S., he reached number 26 on the Billboard pop charts in September 1966, opening a large pathway of success only menaced by himself and his complex character. Ten years after his death from cancer, with a new fad coming, he was repackaged by the entertainment industry as a mere lounge player, carrying his record sales even further and sending the cost of his out-of-print albums to the stratosphere, but all at the cost of minimizing his significance. It is forgotten that the time lag worked against him and what today is lounge music was then innovative and revolutionary. With all those fans of samba-canção divas feeling personally insulted by those percussive rhythms reminiscent of a Brazilian black tradition that was not dear to the average Brazilian, it has to be stressed that the bossa nova movement, and Wanderley within it, had the role of affirming Brazilian identity in a broader cultural industry which was developed out of the folkloric redoubts. In fact, he also has an upbeat production full of that energy provided by his distinctive staccato stuttering style, immediately reminiscent of authentic Brazilian rhythmic and percussive impetus. He also improvised extended melodic solos without reheated licks, but that was obviously also left out of his most popular albums. At five, he was already playing the piano. At 12, he attended the Licee of Arts for a year of theory classes, later studying harmony and arranging. Beginning his professional career while still in Recife, a most lively city with a vibrant cultural life, he worked every night either at the piano or at the organ. At 26, in 1958, he moved to...