Eumir Deodato

Eumir Deodato de Almeida (born 22 June 1942) is a Brazilian pianist, composer, arranger and record producer, primarily in jazz but who has been known for his eclectic melding of genres, such as pop, rock, disco, rhythm and blues, classical, Latin and bossa nova.

Deodato has arranged and produced more than 500 records for acts such as Frank Sinatra, Roberta Flack, Björk and Christophe, as well as produced Kool & the Gang's hits "Celebration", "Ladies' Night" and "Too Hot".

Deodato, born in Rio De Janeiro on June 22, 1943, began his musical life on accordion when he was 12 years old, and then piano two years later.

He studied orchestration, conducting and arranging.

Since the 1960s, Deodato has been in demand as a producer and arranger.

He has worked on more than 500 albums, and 15 have reached platinum status as defined by the RIAA.

In the early 1960s, he worked as a freelance arranger for Odeon Records.

He played bossa nova in bands with Paulo Silvino and Orlandivo, then formed his own band, which featured João Palma, Sergio Barroso, Ugo Marotta, Henri Ackselrud and guitarist Celso Brando, who was later replaced by Roberto Menescal in 1962.

Eumir’s paternal grandfather was a marble craftsman from Custonaci, Sicily.

Deodato often plays the Fender Rhodes electric piano.

He wrote arrangements for Wilson Simonal, Marcos Valle, Leny Andrade, Pery Ribeiro, Tito Madi and for his own debut album, Inútil Paisagem (1964), which was dedicated to the work of Antônio Carlos Jobim and recorded in Rio when Deodato was 22.

Jobim praised him in the album's liner notes.

Deodato played piano with guitarists Oscar Castro-Neves and Roberto Menescal, drummer Juquinha and an all-star cast including Copinha, J.T. Meirelles, Cipó, Paulo Moura.

He has been credited for helping to start the career of Milton Nascimento; Deodato was part of a committee tasked with choosing songs for a festival and chose three by Nascimento.

He moved to New York City in 1967 to work with guitarist Luiz Bonfá, with whom he recorded seven albums and countless jingles.

Bonfá also introduced him to vocalist Astrud Gilberto and record producer Creed Taylor, when they were reunited on the making of Astrud's "Beach Samba" album for Verve Records.

He became successful as a keyboard player in the 1970s.

Since then, he has produced and arranged music on more than 500 albums for artists such as Kool and the Gang, Con Funk Shun, Björk, Christophe, Ithamara Koorax and k.d. lang.

Guitarist John Tropea and flautist Hubert Laws appeared on his early albums.

His interpretation of Pavane pour une infante défunte ("Pavane for a Dead Princess") by Maurice Ravel was used in the 1970s by an Australian television station as background music.

The song peaked at number 2 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 in March 1973.

It reached number 3 in Canada and number 7 on the British charts.

Prelude, his first album in the U.S., was released in 1973.

His second album, Deodato 2, reached number 19 on the Billboard album chart, and the single "Rhapsody in Blue" reached No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.

Deodato was nominated for three Grammy Awards and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1974 for "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)."

The album sold 5 million copies worldwide and earned Deodato the 1974 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for the track Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) as well as a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.

In 1978, he had an orchestral hit with Whistle Bump from the LP titled Love Island.

The track promoted the widespread use of whistles in nightclubs at the time.

However, his popularity in the discos was solidified when he released the 1979 single Night Cruiser from the album of the same name, which earned him a third Grammy nomination for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

Deodato continued recording through the 1980s.

In 1985, he had two hits, "S.O.S., Fire in the Sky" and "Are You For Real", on Billboard magazine's top 20 Dance chart.

In 1998, Deodato invited his old friend and fellow Brazilian jazz impresario Arnaldo DeSouteiro to co-produce with him the first official CD reissues of all his albums from the 1960s, in a total of nine releases.

Among them, Inútil Paisagem (reissued by JSR in co-production with Universal Music), Idéias, and all the albums from the Os Catedráticos series that were digitally remixed and remastered by audio engineer Rodrigo de Castro Lopes under the direct supervision of both Deodato and DeSouteiro.

His track Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001) gained big hit in Billboard pop chart.

This album was crossover music style that attracted a large audience and was produced by Creed Taylor for his label CTI.

He recorded Live in Rio in 2007.

In 2009, Prelude was reissued for the first time in Asia on SACD and SHM-CD formats under the supervision of Arnaldo DeSouteiro.

In 2010 he played the rhodes piano in the album Oasis produced and performed by Marita Pauli.

In 2011, he released the album The Crossing, which he produced with Lino Nicolosi and Pino Nicolosi at Nicolosi Productions, with guest vocalist Al Jarreau.

In 2018 he arranged and conducted the strings orchestra in the album The First released by Riccardo Dalli Cardillo.