Eumir Deodato

Personal life

Deodato was born in Rio de Janeiro to Italian and Portuguese parents. He is a musical autodidact, starting with the accordion at age 12 but rapidly learning instrumental and orchestral skills that led to his first recording session at age 17. His daughter, Kennya Deodato, is married to American actor Stephen Baldwin.

Recording career

Deodato's records can be categorized as pop, jazz or crossover jazz. His successes as a keyboard player occurred mainly in the 1970s. Since then, he has produced or arranged music on more than 500 albums for acts ranging from Kool and the Gang to Björk, Christophe and k.d. lang.

His first album in the US, Prelude, released in January 1973, was of a big band Latin jazz style that immediately attracted a wide audience. The album was produced by Creed Taylor on his CTI (Creed Taylor Inc.) label. The nine-minute crossover jazz version of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, entitled "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)", won the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. It went to No. 2 in the pop charts in the US, No. 3 in Canada, and No. 7 in the UK and was CTI's biggest single. The album climbed to No. 3 in the Billboard chart, the label's best-selling album and an amazing sales achievement for a jazz-based release. It was subsequently used to great effect in the 1979 film Being There, starring Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine. It has also been covered extensively by the rock band Phish in their live performances and included in several of their live releases.

His second album, Deodato 2, despite being of the same style and quality, failed to sell as well, but climbed to number 19 in the Billboard album chart, whilst the single, "Rhapsody in Blue" reached No. 41 on the Hot 100 in 1973. Another track from the album, his interpretation of Ravel's "Pavane pour une infante defunte" ("Pavane for a Dead Princess"), was used for a number of years in the 1970s by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television station ABN-2 in Sydney, serving as the background music for a videotaped sequence of scenes of Sydney at night, which marked the end of transmission for the day (in the period before the ABC commenced 24-hour broadcasting).

His early career records used guitarist John Tropea and jazz fusion flautist Hubert Laws. He was also known for utilizing the electric piano sound of the Fender Rhodes Eighty-Eight, with his trademark gritty tube drive. His music became very popular on the disco scene of the late 1970s when he worked with Tommy LiPuma arranging and conducting disco music on Warner Brothers Records such as "Whistle Bump" (promoting the use of a whistle in disco music) in 1978 from the LP Love Island and later a huge disco hit also produced and arranged by him called "Night Cruiser" in 1980. In 1982 he released a further track called "Keep on Movin'" from the LP Happy Hour but this track did not gain the huge popularity in the clubs that "Night Cruiser" had. He continued recording until the late 1980s on the Warner Brothers label, but never reached the level of his early successes, although two singles, "S.O.S., Fire In The Sky" and "Are You For Real", were Top 20 Billboard Dance hits in 1985.

Producer and arranger

Deodato has been in demand as a producer and arranger since the 1960s. In all, he has worked on more than 500 albums, 15 of which have reached platinum. His skills as an arranger provided entree to the American recording industry, writing charts for Wes Montgomery, compatriot singer Astrud Gilberto, and Frank Sinatra, the results of which were released as the bossa nova side of Sinatra's 1971 LP, Sinatra & Company. Other collaborations have included production duties for Kool and the Gang in the early 1980s, the first solo album by Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners in 1988 and orchestrations for Björk on her 1997 album Homogenic. Deodato had previously worked on Björk's song "Isobel", making a mix which was later released on her album Telegram, produced by Björk, Nellee Hooper, Tricky, Howie B. and Deodato himself. He has also written scores for a number of films, including The Gentle Rain (1966), The Black Pearl (1977), and The Onion Field (1979).

In 2007 Deodato co-produced the single called "Paris, Tokyo" which is on the album Lupe Fiasco's The Cool.

He also recorded a live album in Rio in 2007 called Eumir Deodato Trio – ao vivo no Rio (Eumir Deodato Trio, Live in Rio). In 2010, Deodato released the album The Crossing, produced by him in cooperation with Lino Nicolosi, Pino Nicolosi, and Nicolosi Productions, with guest Al Jarreau. In the same year Deodato was cooperating and playing with Riccardo Dalli Cardillo for a new album released by Marita Pauli singer.

Albums

CTI Albums

MCA Albums

Warner Bros./Atlantic albums

Recent Albums

Singles

As sideman or arranger

With Vanessa da Mata

With Titãs

With Luiz Bonfá

With Ray Bryant

With Astrud Gilberto

With Antônio Carlos Jobim

With Antônio Carlos Jobim

With Paul Desmond

With Milton Nascimento

With Walter Wanderley

With Michael Franks