Artist Bio:
Of all the musicians who came to prominence in the 1960s, Jorge Ben has always seemed to be the one to whom music-making came easiest. Feted by the bossa crowd, the tropicalia crowd and even the rock musicians of the Jovem Guarda, Ben has always stood outside all those movements while being able to move freely between all of them.
Growing up in the working class north of Rio, the son of a stevedore and an Ethiopian mother, his parents were friends with the composer Ataulfo Alves, and his father wrote songs for Carnival. Given a guitar at the age of 17, Ben's first group was the Copa 5, named after the Copacabana area of Rio where he was then living. Playing alongside Dom Um Romao and Dom Salvador, the little band played in the clubs along the Beco das Garrafas, and the informal atmosphere that existed in the small clubs, the jam sessions and the encouragement that he received led him to decide to become a musician instead of a football player for Flamengo (his earliest wish until injury got in the way) or a lawyer (the wish of his parents). He was a success right from the start: His first night in Bottle's Club was attended by Armando Pittigliani (a producer for Phillips records), who signed him on the spot.
From his very earliest recordings in the early '60s, Ben's guitar style made him unique. Having taught himself to play the guitar in the army, his percussive strumming style using either the thumb and forefinger or plectrum made him hard to play with. Jamming alongside Erasmo Carlos and Tim Maia in the clubs of his youth, his ability to incorporate all aspects of Brazilian popular music was (until the arrival of the Tropicalists) unrivaled.
If a count was made of the proportion of good songs versus bad by all the major Brazilian artists of the last 40 years, the odds are that Jorge Ben would be very near the top. From 1963 to 1976, Ben produced a faultless string of albums, culminating in 1976's Africa Brasil. Samba, bossa, Afro-samba, tropicalia, funk, blues, folk; you name it, it's there in his work.
In later years, he's turned towards soul and an increasingly synthesized backing but it has made little difference either to his popularity or the quality of work.
In recent years he has had new hits (he signed with Sony Music in 1995), seen his songs covered by the likes of Daude and Marisa Monte, written songs with Arnaldo Antunes, been positively name-checked by many of the new artists, and introduced himself to a younger and appreciative new audience. —Courtesy Calabash Music
