Description
Wheres Joo Donato? Its a frequently asked question, referring simultaneously to the physical location and the musical moment he inhabits. A sampling of some of his more descriptive song titles suggests Donatos comfort with musical hybrids: Bluchanga, Sambolero, and Sambongo, to name just a few. Lacking a name for his style of music, Donatos is a distinct sound, immediately recognizable from the first few bars of any of his compositions. He was funky back when funk was a bad word (listen to either of his 1960s Brazilian LPs for proof). His compositions are deceptively simple, while his arrangements are harmonically complex, resulting in songs that are seemingly childlike, yet reveal their intricate details upon repeat listening.
Joo Donato was born in 1934 and spent his early years completely landlocked in the Amazon wilderness of Acre, a state that borders Peru and Bolivia. By eight, he was playing accordion and even wrote his first song, Indio Perdido, which he would later re-record as Lugar Comum thirty-three years later with lyrics courtesy of tropialist pop star, Gilberto Gil. Donatos family moved to Rio de Janeiro when he was sixteen and he started hanging out with other jazz-obsessed teenagers in the suburbs of Rio. By1958, at the age of twenty-four, Donato was one of the most respected musicians in Rio, but what he wanted to play was not what local audiences wanted to hear, so he spent the next 15 years bouncing between Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York City. Upon his return in 1973, hed been forgotten by the general public, but had become a legend to a younger generation of musicians, including: Marcos Valle, Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa & Gilberto Gil.
A archetypal musicians musician, Donatos stepped out of the shadows more in the past couple dates, recording at an unprecedented rate and collaborating with a variety of musicians, from Brazil and beyond, old and young. Still going strong over eighty years old, the late praise and recognition is in good company for a musician whom Claus Ogerman offered to arrange an album, whom Antonio Carlos Jobim called a genius, and whom no less than Joo Gilberto claims invented the bossa nova beat.Credit:Joo Donato Bandcamp
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