Antonio Adolfo
Antonio Adolfo was born February 10, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro. He is a keyboard player, arranger, and one of the greatest Brazilian talents of his generation. Adolfo's sound and style is contemporaneous; he mixes together jazz, MPB, baroque orchestrations, easy scoring, and a bit of funk, similar to the best work of the Blue Brazil generation on EMI/Odeon Records. Adolfo’s records are extremely sought after in the world of collectors.
Antonio Adolfo grew up in a musical family in Rio de Janeiro. He was the son of Yolanda Maurity; a music teacher and violinist of the orchestra of the Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. At the age of seven he began his violin studies with Paulina D’Ambrozzio, when he was 15 he took up piano, studying with Ayrton Vallim and by seventeen he was already a professional musician. As a musician and arranger he has worked with some of the most representative Brazilian names; along with this he has released 25 albums under his name.
During the 60's he led his own trio and toured with singers Elis Regina and Milton Nascimento. Adolfo wrote tunes that gained him great success and have been recorded by such artists as Sérgio Mendes, Stevie Wonder, Herb Alpert, Earl Klugh, Dionne Warwick, and others.
In 1963, he joined the group Samba Cinco, which performed in the famous Beco das Garrafas on Rio's 52nd street. In 1964 Adolfo was invited by Carlos Lyra and Vinícius de Moraes to be a musician for their play; Pobre Menina Rica (at Teatro de Bolso.) Adolfo formed the group 3-D for that gig, and continued to perform with it until 1968, having recorded four LPs.
In 1969 Adolfo accompanied Elis Regina in her tour through Europe. In the same year he went back to Brazil where he wrote music for soap operas and participated in the IV FIC Music Festival.
He then left Elis’s group to form his own group which toured throughout Brazil and recorded two highly acclaimed and popular albums under the name ‘Brazuka’. These records are considered cults and all the lyrics were written by poet Tiberio Gaspar.
In 1971 Adolfo moved to the U.S. where he was hired by Jerry Shayne Music, Inc. In 1972 he returned to Brazil and began writing alone whilst recording Antonio Adolfo (Philips). After many arranged albums for numerous other artists and still touring the Brazuka band, Antonio formed his own independent label ‘Artezanal’ with the first release album ‘Feito em Casa.’ He continued releasing countless masterpieces on the label.
In 1985 he participated in the first Carioca experience of teaching popular music/jazz in the Centro Calouste Gulbenkian, together with Pascoal Meirelles, Hélio Delmiro, Ary Piassarollo, Paulo Russo and others. From this he created his own school in Rio, Brazil. Adolfo published musical education material in Brazil and abroad, including the video ‘Secrets of Brazilian Music’ and seven other books through Luminar Publishing.
In 1996 he received the Prêmio Sharp award for his instrumental composition "Cristalina," from his album ‘Cristalino’ (1993). In 1997 he released ‘Chiquinha com Jazz’ (Artezanal) and ‘Antonio Adolfo’ these were also both awarded the Prêmio Sharp.
In 2007 he released ‘Destiny’ through Far Out Recordings. This collaboration with Far Out Recordings was a special record where he teamed with old partner and lyricist Tiberio Gaspar and a production with David Brinkworth and Joe Davis.