Orlann Divo A Chave Do Sucesso CD - Import

Vinyl LP version also available directly from the label at www.whatmusic.comIn July 1999 Whatmusic was lucky enough to catch a very unusual gig in Rio. The return of Orlann Divo to the Zona Sul live circuit after years of being marginalised to low paying 'dance' shows in the Rio suburbs. In classic Carioca style the show, at Vinicius Piano Bar in Ipanema, was late in starting due to the unexplained absence of the pianist Perna Froes. Not to be deterred, and obviously anxious to start pleasing the packed crowd, Orlann Divo reverted to his original 'gimmick' of playing his large bunch of house keys, much in the way that the malandros of Lapa had once practised their batucadas on a box of matches. As he recounted the tale of legendary bandleader Cipo telling the young Divo that he had to have a gimmick, had to create his own sound, he showed the audience how he had come up with this 'samba de chave'. After singing three numbers to this metallic shuffle and standing applause, Perna Froes finally turned up and the show proper started, leaving very few holes in Orlann Divo's classic canon of samba de balanco songs. After talking to the man himself, we decided that something should be done to reissue his classic LPs in the best possible quality from the original masters, to counter the effect of the terrible quality bootlegs of his work that abound in stores from London to Tokyo and back. So here they are, the three classic LPs cut by Orlann Divo for the Rio based Musidisc label digitally remastered in Rio by Ricardo Garcia; possibly the best mastering engineer in Brasil. Forward to October 2001 and Orlann Divo is at the end of the long distance line. WM: Tell me how you got started as a musician? OD: Well, I'd written some songs with a guy called Paulo Silvino and we were supposed to record on an album called Nova Geracao de Ritmo de Samba. Eumir Deodato who was still just a kid, he was on it and Durval Ferreira, he was already on board too. But anyway, some stuff happened and they ended up not asking me to record but they used one of my songs. In fact it was the first time that Claudette Soares had recorded anything and she recorded my song Cinderela em 3D which told the story of a modern Cinderella in Copacabana. WM: What year was that? OD: That was in 1959 and I had been playing in local bars in Copacabana, principally with Djalma Ferreira at his nightclub the famous Drink. Ed Lincoln was his bass player in those days. Anyway, they had me singing and they had Silvio Cezar, Miltinho singing as well. It was Miltinho who helped me to develop my singing style - I was terrified of being compared with Joao Gilberto, everybody was at that time. Also my thing wasn't really bossa nova it was samba de balanco; music for people to dance to not just to sit and listen. Miltinho convinced me to sing my own compositions and that was a first for me. So I started singing and developing this style I have until today. Around that time I had fallen out with Paulo Silvio and started working with Roberto Jorge with whom I composed over 100 songs. WM: When did you cut your first record? OD: Well, Nilo Sergio at Musidisc had head me at the Drink you know and Ed Lincoln was already on his label and so they called me in and I sang four songs. They came out on an EP with a black and white picture of me on the cover. The songs were a real success and were played everywhere. The Jornal do Brasil gave me a great big write up in their Sunday section, the radios were playing the record non-stop. It got tons of radio play and you could hear it everywhere you went but in those days the radio didn't pay royalties and no one got any money, so the best thing was playing live shows. TV appearances paid well when you could get them. This was before TV Globo existed, in Rio in those days there was only the TV Tupi station in the old casino at Urca and I was invited to co-host a weekly show on Saturday afternoons called Alo Broto with Sonia Delfino. Man, I used that sho