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Joao Bosco

João Bosco Biography by John Dougan

Since no others leap to mind, you'd have to say that João Bosco is the greatest civil engineer-turned-singer/songwriter in the history of Brazilian popular music. He graduated with his degree in 1972 but since then has been concentrating on becoming one of Brazil's most formidable songwriters. For most of his early career, he supplied Elis Regina with some of her best material; it could be said that each one made the other's career, but since her death, Bosco has stepped into the performance limelight with a great degree of authority and has been one of the more compelling figures in Brazilian music for decades.

Born in Ponte Nova in 1946, Bosco cut his musical teeth in a family in which music was as important as eating and sleeping. His mother was an accomplished violinist, his father a singer of samba, his sister a concert pianist, and his brother a composer. While attending Ouro Preto University he became steeped in American jazz (Miles Davis in particular) and the bossa nova sound of João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, it was also at university that he met lyricist Vinicius de Moraes, who contributed his elegant, poetic lyrics to Bosco's music. It was not long after that record companies began offering Bosco and de Moraes their services. Later in the '70s, Bosco became musically involved with Aldir Blanc, a psychiatrist who'd decided to give up his practice to become a lyricist. Witty, surreal, at times pretentious, but more often than not extremely clever, Blanc became the perfect foil for Bosco and the two would work together, quite successfully, until the mid-'80s.

Festival Bosco's career rise coincided roughly with Brazil's military dictatorship, which lasted from 1964-1985 and his work, even the most innocuous love song, was frequently censored. As he noted in an interview in the early '90s, "Anything you composed or sang was censored. And there were no guidelines as to what you could or couldn't do. Every piece of music I wrote meant spending hours in the censorship bureau, debating with them, sometimes over one word." In 1977, Bosco wrote his most personal protest song, "O Bebaido e a Equilibrista" (The Drunkard and the Tightrope Walker), which became the theme song of Amnesty International. Despite his fame in Brazil, Bosco wasn't known to Americans until he made a guest appearance with jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour on the latter's 1988 record Festival. The guest spot wasn't enough to make Bosco an international superstar, but he did begin attracting more attention in the U.S. It wasn't until the early '90s that Bosco mounted a major tour of the U.S., but since then he has become increasingly popular internationally, regularly performing at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival, which frequently featured Brazilian performers.

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Album Review

João Bosco: O Canto da Terra por um Fio

Read "O Canto da Terra por um Fio" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright


Released just before the 2023 solstice (winter in the US, summer south of the Equator), João Bosco's stunning “O Canto da Terra por um Fio" (The Corner of the Earth by a Thread) adds a global call for godly and human intervention to the season's more traditional holiday fare. The piece is the first single of a project to be released in mid-2024. The lyric speaks of a great river that sees its life hanging by a thread, that feels ...

3
In Pictures

João Bosco Quartet at Soresina Jazz Festival 2019

Read "João Bosco Quartet at Soresina Jazz Festival 2019" reviewed by Danilo Codazzi


Photos from the João Bosco Quartet concert at Sociale Theatre in Soresina (Italy) on May 5th featuring João Bosco, Ricardo Silveira, Kiko Freitas (drums), and Guto Wirtti (bass). ...

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Live Review

Joao Bosco in Cleveland

Read "Joao Bosco in Cleveland" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


Night Town Cleveland Heights OH July 2004

Fresh off a summer tour that included a 20-city stint through Europe and gigs in Japan and Africa, Brazilian master Joao Bosco and his quartet held forth for two consecutive evenings at Night Town and Cleveland was blessed to be one of only three spots in the nation to have hosted this alluring entertainer. Over the course of two generous sets of music, one had to marvel at ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

O Canto da Terra por...

Sony Music (Som Livre)
2023

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