Singer, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger João Donato passed away at 88 years old in Rio de Janeiro on Monday (July 17). The artist had been hospitalized the previous week due to a lung infection. João Donato’s Instagram page announced his death. “The paradise of composers woke up happier this morning, as João Donato joined them to play his beautiful melodies. His joy, just like his chords, will now last forever throughout the universe.”
João Donato is a massively influential figure in the history and development of bossa nova and Brazilian jazz. The pianist, composer, and arranger recorded over three dozen albums under his own name and has thousands of credits. He worked with virtually all the Brazilian masters, men and women, for generations, including João Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, Tito Puente, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and countless others.
Donato was born on August 17, 1934, in Rio Branco, the capital of the state of Acre in the north, and moved with his family to Rio de Janeiro 11 years later. Music came early to him. Encouraged by his father, a mandolin player, and his mother, a singer, he was already playing the accordion at five years old.
In Rio de Janeiro, after participating in musical parties at schools in Tijuca, in the North Zone of Rio, he began to join jam sessions at the home of singer Dick Farney and at the Sinatra Farney Fan Club at the age of 15.
The first time he appeared on record was as a member of flutist Altamiro Carrilho’s band. It was also around this time that he came into contact with other great names, such as Lúcio Alves, and became known to artists outside Brazil, including Chet Baker.
In the 1950s, he moved to the USA, where he explored and combined jazz and Latin music.
In 2016, his album Donato Elétrico was nominated for the Latin Grammy for Best Instrumental. The record was also voted the 11th best Brazilian album of the year by Rolling Stone Brasil magazine.
He released an album last year and was still performing earlier this year.
“I am not bossa nova, I am not samba, I am not jazz, I am not rumba, I am not forró. In fact, I am all of this at the same time,” Donato told the newspaper O Globo from Rio in an interview in 2014.
Source: Agência Brasil and AllMusic