Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about
Manfredo Fest's 86th Birthday
Manfredo Fest was a blind jazz pianist and bandleader who helped create the Brazilian bossa nova movement. Today’s Google Doodle celebrates the musician’s 86th Birthday.
Fest was born in Brazil to parents who immigrated from Germany in the 1920s. He began studying classical music at age five with his father, the chairman of the music department at the University of Porto Alegre. Legally blind since birth, Fest learned to read music in Braille and play the piano, keyboards and saxophone. He developed a strong interest in jazz during college, graduating with a degree in music from the University of Rio Grande do Sul.
He spent his early musical career playing in bars and clubs around São Paulo and took part in Brazil’s emergent bossa nova movement, a style of music where samba is fused with jazz. In 1963, Fest composed and recorded his first album, Bossa Nova, Nova Bossa. A few years later, he moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and toured the United States as an arranger and keyboard player with fellow countryman Sergio Mendes’ Brazil ’66 band. Fest went on to work with a variety of noteworthy musical groups, including the Flecktones
Fest released 19 albums over the course of his career, experimenting with combinations of both Brazilian and American styles. Fest’s music—including the 1976 jazz funk gem, Brazilian Dorian Dream—are still performed by jazz musicians and groups around the world.
Happy birthday to an innovative musician, composer and who filled our lives with all that jazz and as always have a chilled day from the Viking
Comments
Post a Comment