Thursday, July 20, 2023
Playlist: João Donato
In tribute to the Brazilian pianist and composer, who passed away on July 17, here are twenty of the finest songs that João Donato recorded in a career that lasted over 70 years
© Fabio Seixo Ag
It's hard to quantify the importance of João Donato. He was a professional musician in the late 1940s at the tender age of 15. Before long, he was in the middle of the bossa nova boom that was taking over Brazil, and soon the world. João Gilberto claimed that Donato invented the bossa nova beat; Antonio Carlos Jobim called him a genius; and he recorded a number of bossa nova albums; though he was never one to be pigeonholed and it is within Brazilian and Latin jazz that he perhaps had the biggest impact.
After moving to the US, he played as a sideman or collaborator with Mongo Santamaria, Cal Tjader, Eddie Palmieri and Tito Puente, where he was more often than not playing trombone than the piano we associate him with. For years he crisscrossed between Latin jazz and bossa nova recordings, including playing on the hugely important The Astrud Gilberto Album in 1965. Then, in 1970 he was given the opportunity to record an album of whatever he wanted, it didn't need to pander to the zeitgeist, Donato had free rein. At the time he was listening to a lot of James Brown, and the album, A Bad Donato, reflected this. It's still one of the hardest, funkiest jazz albums you'll hear.
When he returned to Brazil he united with Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, who had both also returned, in their case from exile in the UK. After releasing Quem é Quem he worked with Gil on Lugar Comun, which became a huge hit in Brazil. By now, he was merging the up-and-coming sounds of MPB with his playful piano riffs and surprising arrangements. Over the years, he worked with Gal Costa, Joyce, Deodato and many other greats from Brazilian music. More recently, he collaborated with his son Donatinho on the synth-funk album Sintetizamor, with members of Bixiga 70 on Donato Elétrico and with the Jazz Is Dead crew for a largely improvised set. Until the end, he never stopped creating. To have a huge impact on one genre is impressive, to be pivotal in defining what we know as bossa nova, Brazilian jazz and Latin jazz is something else.
Here are 20 songs to pay tribute to João Donato, who passed away on July 17, age 88.
