Profile of Eumir Deodato on Famous Like Me

Eumir Deodato (born on 22 June 1943 in Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian funk artist and pop producer. His successes as an original artist (keyboards) occurred mainly in the 1970s. Since then, he has produced more than 500 albums for acts ranging from Kool and the Gang to Björk. His music is also featured in the video game: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and on the subsequent soundtrack.

History

Brazil

Deodato was born on 22 June 1943 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, of Italian and Portuguese parents. He is a musical autodidact, starting with the accordion at age 12 but rapidly learning instrumental and orchestral skills that culminated in his first recording session at age 17. Originally working as pianist and arranger in the Rio bossa nova scene, he rapidly outgrew this and, along with many other Brazilian musicians during the military dictatorship in their country, moved to New York, working with composer Luis Bonfa and later with producer Creed Taylor as an arranger. Additionally, he became keyboardist in Taylor's expanding group of backing artists.

Recording career

His first album in the USA, Prelude, released in 1972, was of a big band Latin jazz style that immediately attracted a wide audience. His funky version of Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance and went No. 2 in the pop charts in the US and No. 7 in the UK.

His second album, Deodato 2, despite being of the same style and quality, however failed to meet sales expectations, and practically lead to the demise of the record label, Creed Taylor Inc. (CTI). He continued recording until the late 1980s on the Kenya label, but never reached the level of his early successes.

Producer and Arranger

Deaodato has been in demand as a producer and arranger since the 1960s. In all, he has worked on over 500 albums, fifteen of which have reached platinum. His skills as an arranger provided entree to the American recording industry, writing charts for Wes Montgomery, fellow Brazilian chanteuse Astrud Gilberto, and most notably Frank Sinatra, the results of which were released as the bossa nova side of Sinatra's 1971 LP, Sinatra and Company. Other collaborations have included production duties for Kool and the Gang in the early 1980s and orchestrations for Björk on her Homogenic CD of 1997. He also written scores for a number of films.

Discography

• (1964) Inútil Paisagem
• (1972) Percepção
• (1973) Prelude
• (1973) Deodato 2
• (1974) Whirlwinds
• (1974) Deodato/Airto in Concert
• (1974) Artistry
• (1975) First Cuckoo
• (1976) Very Together
• (1978) Love Island
• (1979) Knights of Fantasy
• (1980) Night Cruiser
• (1982) Happy Hour
• (1985) Motion
• (1989) Somewhere Out There

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