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Luiz Bonfá | |
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 Bonfá in 1962 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Luiz Floriano Bonfá |
| Born | (1922-10-17)17 October 1922 Rio de Janeiro,Brazil |
| Died | 12 January 2001(2001-01-12) (aged 78) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Genres | Brazilian jazz,bossa nova |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer |
| Instrument | Guitar |
| Years active | 1940s–2001 |
| Labels | Verve,Dot,Cook,Philips,Epic |
Luiz Floriano Bonfá (17 October 1922 – 12 January 2001) was a Brazilianguitarist andcomposer. He was best known for the music he composed for the filmBlack Orpheus.[1]
Luiz Floriano Bonfá was born on October 17, 1922, inRio de Janeiro. His father was an Italian immigrant. He began studying with Uruguayanclassical guitaristIsaías Sávio at the age of 11. These weekly lessons entailed a long, harsh commute (on foot, plus two and half hours on train) from his family home in Santa Cruz, in the western rural outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the teacher's home in the hills ofSanta Teresa. Given Bonfá's extraordinary dedication and talent for the guitar, Sávio excused the youngster's inability to pay for his lessons.
Bonfá first gained widespread exposure in Brazil in 1947 when he was featured on Rio'sRádio Nacional, then an important showcase for up-and-coming talent. He was a member of the vocal group Quitandinha Serenaders in the late 1940s. Some of his first compositions such as "Ranchinho de Palha", "O Vento Não Sabe", were recorded and performed by Brazilian croonerDick Farney in the 1950s. Bonfá's first hit song was "De Cigarro em Cigarro" recorded byNora Ney in 1957. It was through Farney that Bonfá was introduced toAntônio Carlos Jobim andVinicius de Moraes, the leading songwriting team behind the worldwide explosion ofBossa Nova in the late 1950s to 1970s, becoming a fever in the US. Bonfá collaborated with them and with other prominent Brazilian musicians and artists in productions of de Moraes' anthological playOrfeu da Conceição, which several years later gave origin toMarcel Camus' filmBlack Orpheus (Orfeu Negro in Portuguese). In the burgeoning days of Rio de Janeiro's jazz scene, it was commonplace for musicians, artists, and dramatists to collaborate in such theatrical presentations. Bonfá wrote some of the original music featured in the film, including the numbers "Samba de Orfeu" and his most famous composition, "Manhã de Carnaval" (of whichCarl Sigman later wrote a different set of English lyrics titled "A Day in the Life of a Fool"), which has been among the top tenstandards played worldwide, according toThe Guinness Book of World Records.
As a composer and performer, Bonfá was an exponent of the bold, lyrical, lushly orchestrated, and emotionally chargedsamba-canção style that predated the arrival ofJoão Gilberto's more refined and subduedbossa nova style.Jobim,João Donato,Dorival Caymmi, and other contemporaries were also essentiallysamba-canção musicians until the sudden, massive popularity of the young Gilberto's unique style of guitar playing and expressively muted vocals transformed the genre. Camus' film and Gilberto's and Jobim's collaborations with American jazz musicians such asStan Getz andCharlie Byrd did much to bring international recognition to Brazilian popular music, and Bonfá became a highly visible ambassador of Brazilian music in the United States beginning with the famous November 1962 Bossa Nova concert at New York'sCarnegie Hall.
Bonfá worked with American musicians such asQuincy Jones,George Benson,Stan Getz, andFrank Sinatra, recording several albums while in the U.S.Elvis Presley sang a Bonfá composition, "Almost in Love" with lyrics by Randy Starr in the 1968 MGM filmLive a Little, Love a Little. Also of note is his "The Gentle Rain", with lyrics by Matt Dubey, ""Non-Stop To Brazil"" (recorded byAstrud Gilberto) and "Sambolero". From 1990 to 1999, Bonfá worked with singerIthamara Koorax on several recordings and concerts, appearing live with her as special guest at several venues in Rio de Janeiro such as Teatro Rival, BNDES Auditorium and Funarte-Sidney Miller Hall. They also recorded together, in 1996, the albumAlmost In Love - Ithamara Koorax Sings The Luiz Bonfá Songbook, featuring Bonfá on acoustic guitar plus special guestsLarry Coryell,Eumir Deodato,Ron Carter,Marcos Suzano, andSadao Watanabe. The sessions, produced byArnaldo DeSouteiro, were filmed for a Japanese TV broadcast presented bySadao Watanabe.
Bonfá wrote soundtracks for two dozens of movies, such asBlack Orpheus,O Santo Módico,Os Cafajestes,The Gentle Rain,Pour Un Amour Lointain,Le Ore dell'Amore,Carnival Of Crime andPrisoner Of Rio (on which he collaborated with arrangerHans Zimmer), among many others. He died of cancer at 78 in Rio de Janeiro on January 12, 2001.[2][3][4]At the time of his death, he was working in the soundtracks for a movie produced and starred byKaren Black and for a Broadway show titledBrazilian Bombshell based in the life ofCarmen Miranda and to be starred bySonia Braga.
In 2005,Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released an album of Bonfá's work, entitledSolo in Rio 1959, which included previously unreleased material from the original recording session.
In 2008,Universal Music France released acoffee table book containing two CDs which included previously unreleased material of theBlack Orpheus soundtrack, and a DVD. Also in 2008,Universal Music releasedThe Brazilian Scene,Braziliana andBlack Orpheus celebrating the 50th anniversary of the bossa nova.
Bonfá's major legacy continues to be his compositions from theBlack Orpheus soundtrack, most notably the instantly recognizable bossa nova classic "Manhã de Carnaval". Bonfá's discography also attests to his inventive mastery of Brazilian jazz guitar. Bonfá's guitar style was brassier and more penetrating than that of his major contemporary, João Gilberto, and Bonfá was a frequent and adept soloist whereas Gilberto plays his own suave, intricate brand of rhythm guitar almost exclusively. Bonfá often played solo guitar in apolyphonic style, harmonizing melody lines in a manner similar to that made famous byWes Montgomery in the US, or playing lead and rhythm parts simultaneously. As a composer and as a guitarist, Bonfá played a pivotal role in bridging the incumbentsamba-canção style with the innovations of the bossa nova movement.
Bonfá'sinstrumental "Seville" from his 1967 LPLuiz Bonfa Plays Great Songs is the basis for the 2011 hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Belgian-Australian musicianGotye. Gotye's song charted number one in 27 countries.
Many other Bonfá's songs have been heavily sampled by MCs, rappers and DJs of the hip-hop generation. "Bonfá Nova" was sampled by Brazilian rapperMarcelo D2 on the hit song "À Procura da Batida Perfeita," "Jacarandá" was sampled by the groupPlanet Hemp on "Se Liga", "Bahia Soul" was sampled by the British bandSmoke City on their biggest hit "Underwater Love". "Saudade Vem Correndo" became the hip-hero anthem "Runnin'" recorded byThe Pharcyde. In 2021,JPEGMAFIA sampled different parts of the same song in "DIKEMBE!", which was included in the offline version of his "LP!" album and afterwards released in streaming services in his EP "OFFLINE!". Japanese DJNujabes ヌジャベス also sampled "Shade of the Mango Tree" (from 1980'sBonfa Burrows Brazil) in his track "Lady Brown" on the album "Metaphorical Music" in 2004.
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