Eumir Deodato

Artist Information

Biography

Eumir Deodato

Widely regarded as one of the most respected and sought-after producers in the music world, Brazilian-born Eumir Deodato has racked up 16 platinum records to his credit as artist, arranger or producer with combined sales of well over 25 million records in the USA alone. His discography, including compilations and all his work as arranger, producer and keyboardist, surpasses 450 albums. He has also had the honor of performing with the St. Louis Symphony (which backed him on his superb Artistry album), the Cincinnati Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestra di Musica Leggera dell' Unione Musicisti di Roma. In addition, several artists over the years have covered his songs, including George Benson, Lee Ritenour, Sarah Vaughan, Milt Jackson, Joe Pass, Duke Pearson, Perez Prado and The Emotions. And yet, in spite of all of his varied triumphs, honors and distinctions over the years, the multi-talented, and multi-instrumentalist will probably forever be associated with one song -- his funky rendition of Richard Strauss’ classical opus “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (or more commonly known as the theme to “2001: A Space Odyssey”).

That single compelling tune, which first appeared on his 1972 debut album for CTI Prelude, sold five million copies and earned Deodato his first Grammy Award, instantly catapulted him to international stardom and setting a course for his remarkable ongoing journey in music. Thirty years later, that same tune has found its way into the repertoire of the jam band Phish, a testament to Deodato’s enduring legacy.

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from Italian and Portuguese origin, Eumir Deodato got his start by playing the accordion at age 12. Shortly thereafter, he started studying piano as well as orchestration, arranging and conducting. Strictly self-taught, he immersed himself in theory books while spending countless evenings sitting behind orchestras and carefully observing how they played. His first break came at age 17 when he arranged and conducted his first recording session for a 28-piece orchestra. It wasn’t long before Deodato became one of the most active and respected arrangers and pianists in Rio's busy music scene, recording for such artists as Milton Nascimento, Marcos Valle, Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

In 1967, Deodato moved to New York and began working with Luiz Bonfa, the legendary composer of “Black Orpheus,” while also doing extensive studio work for Astrud Gilberto, Walter Wanderley, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Marcos Valle and many other Brazilian artists who were living in the Big Apple at the time. When writing the arrangements for Astrud Gilberto's Beach Samba, he became acquainted with producer Creed Taylor, who hired him to arrange for other CTI artists like Wes Montgomery, Ray Bryant, Stanley Turrentine, George Benson, Paul Desmond and Tom Jobim. His reputation in the fields of pop and black music was strengthened by his arrangement work for Frank Sinatra ("Sinatra & Co."), Roberta Flack ("Killing Me Softly,” "Chapter Two,” "Quiet Fire") and Aretha Franklin ("Let Me In Your Life").

Following a performance at the Hollywood Bowl with the CTI All-Stars Band in 1972, Deodato formed his own group. His debut appearance as a leader, billed as "2001 Space Concert,” was held at the Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1973. After seven years of worldwide touring (including Australia, Japan, China, South America, Europe) and eight coast-to-coast tours of the States, Deodato decided to concentrate on studio work once again. Besides highly successful solo albums for the CTI, MCA, Warner And Atlantic labels, his work as a producer/arranger earned him several more laurels. One of his first productions was Kool and The Gang's #1 pop single "Celebration." He followed that success with production work for Earth, Wind & Fire, Michael Franks, Gwen Guthrie, Chuck Mangione, Breakfast Club, The Dazz Band, One Way, Con-Funk-Shun, Pretty Poison, Kevin Rowland (Dexy’s Midnight Runners), White Lion and Brenda K. Starr, for whom he produced the pop hit "I Still Believe" in 1987.

Deodato also had three other multi-platinum albums for Kool & The Gang -- Ladies’ Night, Something Special and As One. In the 90's, Deodato continued to be a vital force on the pop scene through his work with Icelandic singer Bjork. In addition to arranging her last three albums -- 1995’s Post, 1996’s Telegram and 1997’s Homogenic, Deodato produced a highly praised acoustic version of Bjork's Isobel, sub-titled Deodato Mix, which became a club scene favorite. He has also produced material for French singer Clémentine (also touring Japan with her as a special guest in 1994), arranged and produced a top 10 single for Brazilian singer Gal Costa (1996) and has performed as guest conductor with Bjork both in Brazil (1996), and in the States at the Tibetan Freedom Concerts at Downing Stadium (1997). In 1998, Deodato arranged for Brazilian pop acts Titãs ("Vol. II", with sales over 500,000 copies) and Carlinhos Brown ("Omelete Man") as well as for the latest album by pop-rock band Penélope Charmosa (released in 1999). He was also special guest on a project by Japanese pop star Akemi Kakihara, recorded in London during the summer of 1998.

In 1999, he scored “Bossa Nova,” a Bruno Barreto film starring Amy Irving, and the following year produced the cd of that score for Verve Records. His most recent projects include production work for Brazilian-Japanese singer Lisa Ono and for jazz singer Ann Hampton Callaway and arrangements for Milton Nascimento and K.D. Lang.

Deodato has also worked on several movie scores, including The Onion Field, The Black Pearl, Ghostbusters II, White Nights, The Girl From Ipanema, The Adventurers (recorded with A.C. Jobim and the London Symphony Orchestra), The Gentle Rain, Target Risk, The Reporter, Beat Street, Body Rock and Bossa Nova. His recordings have also been widely used on major movies such as Being There and The Exorcist.


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Instrumentation

Piano, Bass, Guitar, Drums, Sax, Trumpet, Trombone, Percussion

Discography

1964 Impulso! Ubatuqui
1964 O Som Dos Catedraticos Ubatuqui
1964 Samba Nova Concepcao Ubatuqui
1965 Os Catedraticos: Ataque Ubatuqui
1966 Ideias EMI/Odeon
1966 Tremendao Ubatuqui
1972 Prelude CTI
1972 2001 CTI
1973 Live at Felt Forum: The 2001 Concert Columbia
1973 Deodato 2 CTI
1973 Os Catedraticos 73 Ubatuqui
1974 In Concert [live] CTI
1974 Whirlwinds MCA
1974 Artistry MCA
1975 First Cuckoo MCA
1976 Very Together MCA
1977 Joao Donato Muse
1978 Love Island Warner
1979 Knights of Fantasy Warner
1980 Night Cruiser Warner
1982 Happy Hour Warner
1984 Deodato Protone
1989 Somewhere Out There Atlantic
2001 Preludes & Phapsodies Raven

EUMIR DEODATO
MOVIE CREDITS

1 GHOSTBUSTERS II (UNIVERSAL) BILL MURRAY
Produced 1 song for J.T.Taylor


2 WHITE NIGHTS (COLUMBIA)
TAYLOR HACKFORD
Produced 1 song for Roberta Flack


3 THE ONION FIELD (ORION)
HAROLD BECKER/JOSEPH WAMBAUGH Composed, scored and conducted.


4 BEAT STREET (ORION)
HARRY BELAFONTE/DAVID V. PICKER Produced & co-wrote 3 songs


5 BEING THERE (UNIVERSAL)
Song used on "leaving house" scene (2001)


6 BLACK PEARL (ORION)
SAUL SWIMMER
Composed, scored and conducted.


7 TARGET RISK (UNIVERSAL)
c/o HARRY GARFIELD
Composed, scored and conducted.


8 THE ADVENTURERS (PARAMOUNT) LEWIS GILBERT
Composed half, scored and conducted.


9 THE EXORCIST (WARNER BROS.) WILLIAM FRIEDKIN
Song used on "party scene"(Carly & Carole)


10 TWIGGY SPECIAL (LONDON ARTS) CHRIS SPENCER TV Special.
Composed, scored and conducted.


11 THE REPORTER (GLOBO TV)
LEON HIRZMAN
Composed, scored and conducted.


12 THE GENTLE RAIN (PARAMOUNT) BURT BALLABAN
Scored and conducted


13 GIRL FROM IPANEMA (SAGA FILMS) LEON HIRZMAN
Scored and conducted


14 BOSSA NOVA (SONY CLASSICS) BRUNO BARRETO
Composed, scored and conducted.

Audio

• Also Sprach Zarathustra
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• Baubles, Bangles and Beads
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• Prelude to Afternoon of a Faun
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Video

Deodato Live

Photo Gallery

Press

• KEYBOARD Magazine September 2003 [+ Show ]
  

  Eumir Deoato's beginning's as an arranger for legends such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, a...Eumir Deoato's beginning's as an arranger for legends such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, and Wes Montgomery led to his breakthrough as an artist in his own right. "Prelude", his 1972 debut album, put Deodato on the charts and won him a 1973 Grammy award for Best Pop Instrumental. The album features Deodato's reworking of classics by Richard Strauss, Debussy, and Borodin, as well as his own groove-laden compositions. Indeed, Deodato could be considered a fusion artist, melding classical music with Latin, funk, and jazz elements.
  
  "Prelude" begins with the piece that won Deodato his Grammy, a nine-minute funk workout of "Also Sprach Zarathustra", otherwise known as the "Theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey."Featuring the stellar rhythm section of Stanley Clark and Billy Cobham on bass and drums respectively, Deodato adds fames conguero Ray Barretto and percussionist Airto Moreira for a rhythmic excursion that nicely foreshadows the disco era.
  
  Before he adopted synthesizers, Deodato's main axe was a Fender Rhodes, and his funky playing meshes seamlessly with the full orchestral arrangement. Thinking of the orchestra as an instrument one can appreciate the scope of Deodato's musical talent's beyond his considerable skills. On "Spirit of Summer," his creative chording on the Rhodes provides the foundation for the main orchestral melody. The gentle bossa groove of "Carly & Carole" hearkens back to his Brazilian roots, and his rhythmic Rhodes playing flows into an intricate solo with deeply harmonic melodicizing supported by Cobham's swinging drumming. The light-hearted "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads" displays Deodato's love of the brass section, and talented guitarist John Tropea rides the bass lines of guest bassist Ron Carter amongst Deodato's Latin-flavored Rhodes grooves.
  
  The jazzy take on Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" gave the album its title, and is surely a far cry from anything Debussy had in mind. Deodato's rhythmic applications oh his expansive voicings give depth to the piece, even as it deconstructs its own groove into an atmospheric Rhodes-based dream-state. Deodato brings back the straight funk on "September 13", digging into Cobham's tasty groove to finish off this classic recording.
  
  Also recommended: "Deodato 2", Bjork's "Post"

• EMAZING.COM [+ Show ]
  

  Deodato -- Preludes and Rhapsodies Most people associate Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra&qu...Deodato -- Preludes and Rhapsodies
  Most people associate Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" with Stanley Kubrick's monumental "2001: A Space Odyssey." Eumir Deodato had big hit with a Brazilian-flavored jazz/fusion version of the over-the-top classic -- in fact, lots of folks will tell you they remember it from the movie. Actually, Deodato's big moment didn't come until 1972, some years after "2001's" release. (If memory serves, Deodato's version did make it to the silver screen as part of the "Being There" soundtrack.) This recent release collects Deodato's first two albums. It's got "Zarathustra" with more of his unique classical-jazz-fusion-bossanova arrangements, including Debussy's "Prelude To Afternoon Of A Faun" and Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue." Very Seventies, very cool.

• The New York Times [+ Show ]
  

  That 70's Jazz (for the Discriminating Rapper) IN their quest for rare grooves and ear-catching h...That 70's Jazz (for the Discriminating Rapper)
  
  IN their quest for rare grooves and ear-catching hooks, hip-hop D.J.'s do a lot of digging through old LP's. Anything is fair game, from classic R & B hits to corny movie soundtracks. But for many D.J.'s, nothing confers sophistication better than jazz.Rap fans and jazz fans value markedly different things in their music, of course. You won't find many samples from John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk or Charlie Parker on rap albums. But you will find quite a few from George Benson, Bob James, Stanley Turrentine and Grover Washington.What do these artists have in common? From a D.J. perspective, the answer is simple: they all recorded for CTI (or one of its subsidiaries), a label founded in the late 1960's by the well-known producer Creed Taylor. Rappers from Run D.M.C. to LL Cool J to Snoop Dogg have all sampled CTI's stylish, groove-driven recordings. In fact, the label has gained a cachet among hip-hop D.J.'s, in part because its catalog has only sporadically been available since the introduction of the CD in the late 1980's.But that situation may change: Sony Legacy reissued eight titles earlier this month, including albums by Mr. Benson, Mr. Turrentine, Milt Jackson and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Seven more are planned for this summer. Even so, dozens of CTI albums remain out of print.The unavailability of CTI's catalog is especially puzzling given the label's great commercial success in the 1970's. Its best-known albums, like Mr. Washington's "Mr. Magic" and Mr. James's "BJ4," were not just successful by the standards of jazz; they were also bona fide pop hits, often climbing high in the album charts. The label even released a few hit singles, notably Eumir Deodato's 1973 revamping of "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the theme from the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey." It went to No. 2 on the Billboard pop charts despite having an all-star jazz lineup.That such success didn't win Mr. Taylor more friends in jazz is instructive. Where many jazz musicians wanted their music to be more like high art — oblique, austere, intellectually demanding — Mr. Taylor believed that jazz, having started out as popular music, ought to maintain a connection to a broader audience. His credo was that when cut off from its pop roots, jazz withers and dies.By and large, Mr. Taylor's productions stressed recognizable tunes (often pop hits at the time or light classical favorites), sturdy, straightforward grooves and slick, hi-fidelity recordings. Jazz snobs carped that many of those values were middlebrow, pandering to commercial tastes. (When Steely Dan imported those qualities into rock, critics applauded.)Mr. Taylor nonetheless managed to assemble a stable of first-rate talent — including Paul Desmond, Freddie Hubbard and Chet Baker — and to make the sound sell. His success shouldn't have been that surprising. Initially a trumpeter, he began his career in jazz production in 1954. A decade later, he produced one of the most successful jazz albums of its time; Stan Getz and João Gilberto's "Getz/Gilberto," which included the Grammy-winning single "The Girl From Ipanema."In 1967, Mr. Taylor began CTI as a boutique label within A & M Records. His first signings ranged from the Brazilian superstar Milton Nascimento to the arranger Quincy Jones. The album "A Day in the Life" by the guitarist Wes Montgomery showed that the producer hadn't lost the touch. Lushly arranged and favoring pop fare over jazz standards — the title was that of a Beatles song — it placed Mr. Montgomery's lean, swinging phrasing in a commercial package and earned him the only gold album (selling more than 500,000 copies) of his career.CTI went independent in 1970, and "Stone Flower," its reissue of an album by the Brazilian composer and guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim, was one of the label's first releases. Jobim was a favorite of Mr. Taylor's, having written "The Girl From Ipanema" and many of the bossa nova songs that "Getz/Gilberto" helped popularize. "Stone Flower" isn't jazz as such — there's little improvisation — but it offers a stellar lineup, particularly the bassist Ron Carter (a CTI mainstay), the flutist Hubert Laws and the saxophonist Joe Farrell.What "Stone Flower" lacks in solos is made up for in warmth and rhythm. As arranged by Mr. Deodato, the album casts Jobim's songs in the signature CTI manner, with the instrumental soloists treated almost like singers and the harmonies sketched in dark, velvety textures (whispery strings, throaty flutes, chocolaty trombones).But it's the approach to rhythm that would ultimately become a CTI touchstone and endear the label to D.J.'s. Where most jazz albums relied on a standard bebop rhythm section of piano, bass and drums, CTI recordings frequently added guitar and percussion. Mr. Benson's 1973 album, "Body Talk," not only paired his electric guitar with Earl Klugh's acoustic; it also reinforced Mr. Carter's acoustic bass with Gary King's electric.In addition, most of the label's albums were recorded in the studios of the engineer Rudy Van Gelder, a jazz legend in his own right, in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. He emphasized the rhythm instruments: the deep resonance of acoustic bass and the crispness of cymbals and percussion. By shading the sounds, Mr. Van Gelder created a sonic world that was CTI's own.That ear for sonic detail is evident on Mr. Laws's "Rite of Spring." Based on classical works, from Stravinsky's "Rite" to a swinging take on Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, the album wields an unusual array of instruments, including a bassoon. But even the arrangements tend to emphasize ensemble playing over improvisation. Notwithstanding, there are enough hot moments that the title track has been sampled by the Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members.MR. TAYLOR eventually augmented his CTI line with Kudu Records, a subsidiary devoted to soul jazz. Beginning with the organist Johnny Hammond's "Breakout" in 1971, it expanded on the formula that Mr. Taylor had established with Mr. Turrentine's 1970 album "Sugar." Kudu releases were funkier and relied more on pop songs than most CTI offerings, making more of beats and arrangements than of solos.It was the rhythm that made both the Beastie Boys and Fat Boy Slim sample "Loran's Dance" from the drummer Idris Muhammad's album "The Power of Soul," just as the rappers Eric B. and Rakim drew from Hammond's "Breakout." That connection may not be enough to make hip-hop listeners into a new generation of jazz fans. But it's nice to know that these recordings are again available in something more than just snippets.

Setlist

1 Rhapsody In Blue
2 Spirit Of Summer
3 Whirlwinds
4 Nights In White Satin
5 San Juan Sunset

INTERMISSION

6 Black Dog
7 Super Strut
8 Skyscrapers
9 Whistle Bump
10 Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001 Theme)

Basic Requirements

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