Baden Powell

Baden Powell de Aquino 6 August 1937 26 September 2000 known professionally as Baden Powell was a Brazilian guitarist He combined classical techniques with popular harmony and swing He performed in many styles including bossa nova samba Brazilian jazz Latin jazz and MPB He performed on stage during most of his lifetime Powell composed many pieces for guitar such as Abração em Madrid Braziliense Canto de Ossanha Casa Velha Consolação Horizon Imagem Lotus Samba Samba Triste Simplesmente Tristeza e Solidão and Samba da Benção He released Os Afrosambas a watershed album in MPB with Vinicius de Moraes in 1966 Baden Powell de Aquino was born in VarreSai in Rio de Janeiro Brazil His father a Scouting enthusiast named him after Robert BadenPowell When he was three months old his family relocated to the Rio suburb of São Cristóvão His house was a stop for popular musicians during his formative years He started guitar lessons with Jayme Florence a famous choro guitarist in the 1940s He soon proved a young virtuoso having won many talent competitions before he was a teenager At age fifteen he was playing professionally accompanying singers and bands in various styles He was fascinated by swing and jazz but his main influences were in the Brazilian guitar canon In 1955 Powell played with the Steve Bernard Orquestra at the Boite Plaza a nightclub within the Plaza Hotel in Rio where his skill got the attention of the jazz trio playing across the lobby at the Plaza Bar When Ed Lincoln needed to form a new trio he asked Powell to join on guitar to become the Hotel Plaza Trio Powell brought in Luiz Marinho on bass and a fourth member of the trio Claudette Soares on vocals Powell Lincoln and their young musician friends took part in afterhours jam sessions gaining notice in the growing Brazilian jazz scene Powell achieved wider fame in 1959 by convincing Billy Blanco an established singer and songwriter to put lyrics to one of Badens compositions The result was called Samba Triste and quickly became very successful It has been covered by many artists including Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd in their seminal LP Jazz Samba In 1962 Powell met the poetdiplomat Vinicius de Moraes and began a collaboration that yielded classics of 1960s Brazilian music Although bossa nova was the prevailing sound at the time Baden and Vinicius wanted to combine samba with AfroBrazilian forms such as candomblé umbanda and capoeira In 1966 they released Os AfroSambas de Baden e Vinicius Powell studied advanced harmony with Moacir Santos and released recordings on the Brazilian labels Elenco Records and Forma as well as in the French label Barclay and the German label MPSSaba notably his 1966 Tristeza on Guitar He was the house guitarist for Elenco and of the singer Elis Reginas TV show O Fino da Bossa In 1968 Powell joined with poet Paulo César Pinheiro and produced another series of AfroBrazilianinspired music released in 1970 as Os Cantores da Lapinha Powell visited and toured Europe frequently in the 1960s relocating permanently to France in 1968 Source Article Baden Powell guitarist from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA 30