Flora Purim
Encyclopedia
Flora Purim is a Brazil
ian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion
style. She became prominent for her part in Chick Corea
's landmark album Return to Forever
. She has recorded and performed with numerous critically acclaimed artists, including Stanley Clarke
, Chick Corea
, Dizzy Gillespie
, Gil Evans
, Stan Getz
, the Grateful Dead
, Santana
, Jaco Pastorius
, and her husband Airto Moreira
.
In 2002, Purim was the recipient of one of Brazil's highest awards; the 2002 Ordem do Rio Branco for Lifetime Achievement.
ians, her Romania
n-born father played violin and her Brazilian mother was a pianist. Flora discovered American jazz
when her mother played it while her husband was out of the house.
Purim began her career in Brazil during the early 1960s. During this period, she made a recording, titled "Flora e M.P.M.", in which she sang bossa nova
standards of the day by Carlos Lyra
and Roberto Menescal
. Later in the 1960s, Purim was lead singer for the Quarteto Novo, led by Hermeto Pascoal
and Airto Moreira
.
After reaching young adulthood, Purim mixed jazz with radical protest song
s to defy the repressive Brazilian government of that time. A 1964 military coup in Brazil led to censorship
of song lyrics, and she later commented about this period of her life as follows: "I wanted to leave Brazil. There's a river there called the San Francisco River. I used to sing to the river, that, as it flowed out to the ocean, it would take me to America."
Shortly before leaving Brazil, Purim and Airto Moreira
married. Around 1971, their daughter Diana Booker was born. By 1998, Diana married Krishna Booker, son of jazz bassist Walter Booker
, nephew of saxophonist Wayne Shorter
and godson of pianist Herbie Hancock
.
Diana later described life with her parents as "[growing] up on the road traveling the world like a gypsy".
Arriving in New York
in 1967, Purim and Moreira became immersed in the emerging Electric Jazz. They toured Europe with Stan Getz
and Gil Evans
. In 1972, alongside Stanley Clarke
and Joe Farrell
, they were, for the first two albums, members of Chick Corea
's fusion band Return to Forever
, which released first a self-titled album, Return to Forever
, in 1972, followed the same year as Light as a Feather
; both which received glowing reviews. In 1973, Purim released her first solo album in the United States, titled, Butterfly Dreams. It was well received, and soon thereafter she was chosen by the Down Beat
reader's poll as one of the top five jazz singers. Purim also worked with Carlos Santana
, Mickey Hart
, and Janis Joplin
at outdoor festivals, and on jazz and classical albums through the 1970s. In the early 1970s, Purim was arrested and briefly incarcerated for cocaine
possession.
Throughout the 1970s, Purim released a string of albums for the Milestone
label.
She and her husband Airto were also involved with the Uruguayan band Opa
(which means "hi", but just in Uruguay
), Flora collaborated in vocals in the band's second album Magic Time, and in return, Opa
played in "Corre Niña" in Flora's album, Nothing Will Be as It Was...Tomorrow. (Warner Bros. Records
)
In the 1980s Purim toured with Dizzy Gillespie
's United Nations Orchestra culminating with Gillespie's Grammy Award-winning albumUnited Nations Orchestra released in 1982, and then in the 1990s sang on Grammy Awardwinning album for Mickey Hart
, the former Grateful Dead
drummer. Later in the 1990s Purim released her own album and world tour, Speed of Light starting with a month at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
in Soho with a new band with contributions from Billy Cobham
, Freddie Ravel, George Duke
, David Zeiher, Walfredo Reyes, Alphonso Johnson
, Changuito
, Freddie Santiago, and Giovanni Hidalgo
, with important writing and performing contributions from Chill Factor and her daughter Diana. The new millennium
saw the release of two recordings, Perpetual emotion and a crossover homage to one of Brazil's great composers, Flora sings Milton Nascimento
. In 2005, she reunited with her old Return to Forever
bandleader, Chick Corea
. As of 2010, Purim is still actively touring.
Through the 1990s, Purim worked on a number of broader projects. One of such was a heavy Latin jazz
group called "Fourth World", which in addition to herself consisted of her husband Airto Moreira, Gary Meek, Gary Brown, Jose Neto and Jovino Santos Neto. They would release a number of albums and 12" singles; "Fourth World", "Encounters With The Fourth World", "Last Journey" and an album featuring remixes to their songs by several popular electronic DJ's from around the world called Return Journey. The band's last album release was in 2000.
In 1996, Purim and her husband Airto collaborated with P.M. Dawn on the song "Non-Fiction Burning" for the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio
produced by the Red Hot Organization
.
One of Purim's major musical influences is the Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal
. She has said that Pascoal "play[ed] the Hammond B3 organ, flute
, saxophone
, percussion, and guitar
. He is one of the most complete musicians that I ever met." He also helped train her voice. She also owes a great debt to Chick Corea
, discovering the fusion jazz style for which she is best known when Corea asked her to add vocals to some recordings of his compositions.
Purim has a rare six octave voice, a faculty she shares with Mariah Carey
, Bobby Brown
, Yma Sumac
, and Taborah Johnson
. Her vocal style is influenced by Sarah Vaughan
and Ella Fitzgerald
which drifts from lyrics to wordlessness without ever losing touch with the melody and rhythm. She expanded her vocal repertoire during early tours with Gil Evans
. While touring the world for three years with Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra in the 1980s, she broadened her repertoire to include traditional mainstream jazz, bebop
, and doing numbers in 4/4 time instead of the traditional Brazilian 2/4 beat.
Purim has confided that in recent decades "There are two albums that are at my bedside. They are Miles Ahead
, the first collaboration between Miles Davis
and Gil Evans
and Blow by Blow
, by Jeff Beck
. They are with me every night."
. Purim
is also the name of the annual Jewish festival commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from a Babylon
ian plot to exterminate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther
. Hence Flora Purim presumably has Jewish ancestry through her father. She also adheres to the Bahá'í Faith
thanks in large part to Dizzy Gillespie
. Gillespie's death in 1993 prompted Purim, in 2002 to comment on his influence, saying that [he was]:
"...still a part of my life. If you ever come to my house, there are pictures of him all over my walls...[While touring] he would sit in the back of the bus with me for several hours telling life stories about his family and things that happened to him. He took the time to sit with me and show me with his hands where one was, so if I ever wanted to go into another level of jazz positions I could go into it. I loved him not just for that, but I loved him also because he gave me a lot of insight and spirituality, he even gave me his praying book... One day, when we were on the airplane going to Australia, he said to me, "I want you to have this." Then I said to him, "If you give me your praying book how are you going to pray?" He told me he knew every prayer in the book by memory. I didn't believe it. So he challenged me to open the book on any page and ask him to tell me the prayer of the page. So I opened the book and he asked me what prayer was that, and I said the Traveler's Prayer. He asked me which number it was, and then I told him it was the number 3, and he recited the entire prayer. I quizzed him on another prayer and again he blew me away. He knew every single prayer of that book. So I asked him what was his religion and he told me he had been a Bahá'í for thirty years. I asked him what was the philosophy of Bahá'í religion and he said among other things, is the oneness of mankind, universal peace upheld by a world government, equality between men and women, mandatory education for all children of the world and a spiritual solution to the economic power. I was impressed."
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian jazz singer known primarily for her work in the jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...
style. She became prominent for her part in Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
's landmark album Return to Forever
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...
. She has recorded and performed with numerous critically acclaimed artists, including Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
, the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Jaco Pastorius
Jaco Pastorius
John Francis Anthony Pastorius III , known as Jaco Pastorius, was an American jazz musician and composer widely acknowledged as a virtuoso electric bass player....
, and her husband Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
.
In 2002, Purim was the recipient of one of Brazil's highest awards; the 2002 Ordem do Rio Branco for Lifetime Achievement.
Biography
Purim's parents were both classical musicClassical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
ians, her Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n-born father played violin and her Brazilian mother was a pianist. Flora discovered American jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
when her mother played it while her husband was out of the house.
"She would bring home those 78 vinyl RPMs and when my father was at work, she would play them. That was how I got exposed to jazz music... basically listening to Dinah WashingtonDinah WashingtonDinah Washington, born Ruth Lee Jones , was an American blues, R&B and jazz singer. She has been cited as "the most popular black female recording artist of the '50s", and called "The Queen of the Blues"...
, Billie HolidayBillie HolidayBillie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, and Frank SinatraFrank SinatraFrancis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
. But also a lot of piano players, such as Bill EvansBill EvansWilliam John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
, Oscar PetersonOscar PetersonOscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
and Errol Garner, those were my mother's favorites."
Purim began her career in Brazil during the early 1960s. During this period, she made a recording, titled "Flora e M.P.M.", in which she sang bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
standards of the day by Carlos Lyra
Carlos Lyra
Carlos Lyra is a Brazilian singer and composer of numerous bossa nova and Música Popular Brasileira classics. He was born on May 11, 1939. Along with Roberto Menescal, he was a primary figure of the younger generation of bossa nova musicians who closely followed the inception of the style by João...
and Roberto Menescal
Roberto Menescal
Roberto Menescal is a Brazilian jazz guitarist important to the founding of bossa nova. In many of his songs there are references to the sea. He is also known for work with Carlos Lyra. Menescal has performed in a variety of Latin music mediums, including Brazilian pop, Música Popular Brasileira,...
. Later in the 1960s, Purim was lead singer for the Quarteto Novo, led by Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a greatly beloved musical figure in the history of Brazilian music, known for his abilities at orchestration and improvisation, as well as being a record producer and...
and Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
.
After reaching young adulthood, Purim mixed jazz with radical protest song
Protest song
A protest song is a song which is associated with a movement for social change and hence part of the broader category of topical songs . It may be folk, classical, or commercial in genre...
s to defy the repressive Brazilian government of that time. A 1964 military coup in Brazil led to censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
of song lyrics, and she later commented about this period of her life as follows: "I wanted to leave Brazil. There's a river there called the San Francisco River. I used to sing to the river, that, as it flowed out to the ocean, it would take me to America."
Shortly before leaving Brazil, Purim and Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
married. Around 1971, their daughter Diana Booker was born. By 1998, Diana married Krishna Booker, son of jazz bassist Walter Booker
Walter Booker
Walter Booker was an American jazz musician. A native of Prairie View, Texas, Booker was a reliable bass player and an underrated stylist. His playing was marked by voice-like inflections, glissandos and tremolo techniques.-Biography:Booker moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1940s...
, nephew of saxophonist Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is an American jazz saxophonist and composer.He is generally acknowledged to be jazz's greatest living composer, and many of his compositions have become standards...
and godson of pianist Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
.
Diana later described life with her parents as "[growing] up on the road traveling the world like a gypsy".
Arriving in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1967, Purim and Moreira became immersed in the emerging Electric Jazz. They toured Europe with Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
and Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
. In 1972, alongside Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Clarke is an American jazz musician and composer known for his innovative and influential work on double bass and electric bass guitar as well as for his numerous film and television scores...
and Joe Farrell
Joe Farrell
Joseph Carl Firrantello , known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea's Return to Forever.-Biography:Farrell was born in Chicago...
, they were, for the first two albums, members of Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
's fusion band Return to Forever
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...
, which released first a self-titled album, Return to Forever
Return to Forever (album)
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion album by Chick Corea, simultaneously functioning as the debut album by the band of the same name. Unlike later albums by the group, it was released by the ECM label and produced by Manfred Eicher. The album was not released in the USA until 1975...
, in 1972, followed the same year as Light as a Feather
Light as a Feather
Light as a Feather is the second studio album of fusion band Return to Forever, led by keyboardist Chick Corea.The second and last album by the first line-up of Return to Forever was recorded in the same year eight months later. The style of the music remains mostly the same though vocal tracks...
; both which received glowing reviews. In 1973, Purim released her first solo album in the United States, titled, Butterfly Dreams. It was well received, and soon thereafter she was chosen by the Down Beat
Down Beat
Down Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
reader's poll as one of the top five jazz singers. Purim also worked with Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
, Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
, and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
at outdoor festivals, and on jazz and classical albums through the 1970s. In the early 1970s, Purim was arrested and briefly incarcerated for cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
possession.
Throughout the 1970s, Purim released a string of albums for the Milestone
Milestone Records
Milestone Records is a United States based jazz record label, founded in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was incorporated into Fantasy Records in 1972, since then it has been used for reissues as well as for new recordings....
label.
She and her husband Airto were also involved with the Uruguayan band Opa
Opa (band)
Opa was an american Jazz fusion band formed by uruguayan integrants . Started in 1970s, the band released whose two albums in U.S. :Goldenwings and Magic Time ,...
(which means "hi", but just in Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
), Flora collaborated in vocals in the band's second album Magic Time, and in return, Opa
Opa (band)
Opa was an american Jazz fusion band formed by uruguayan integrants . Started in 1970s, the band released whose two albums in U.S. :Goldenwings and Magic Time ,...
played in "Corre Niña" in Flora's album, Nothing Will Be as It Was...Tomorrow. (Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
)
In the 1980s Purim toured with Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
's United Nations Orchestra culminating with Gillespie's Grammy Award-winning albumUnited Nations Orchestra released in 1982, and then in the 1990s sang on Grammy Awardwinning album for Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is an American percussionist and musicologist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band the Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 to February 1971, and from October 1974 to August 1995...
, the former Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
drummer. Later in the 1990s Purim released her own album and world tour, Speed of Light starting with a month at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club
Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is a jazz club which has operated in London since 1959.The club opened on 30 October 1959 in a basement at 39 Gerrard Street in London's Soho district. It was managed by musicians Ronnie Scott and Pete King. In 1965 it moved to a larger venue nearby at 47 Frith Street...
in Soho with a new band with contributions from Billy Cobham
Billy Cobham
William C. Cobham is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who has called Switzerland home since the late 1970s....
, Freddie Ravel, George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...
, David Zeiher, Walfredo Reyes, Alphonso Johnson
Alphonso Johnson
Alphonso Johnson is an American jazz bassist who has been influential since the early 1970s.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Johnson started off as an upright bass player, but switched to the electric bass in his late teens. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, Johnson showed...
, Changuito
Changuito
Changuito is a Cuban percussionist.-Biography:Quintana was born in 1948 in Casablanca, Cuba. As a child he played professionally in bands such as Havana Jazz , with his musician father, and with La Pandilla de los Cabezas de Perros...
, Freddie Santiago, and Giovanni Hidalgo
Giovanni Hidalgo
Giovanni Hidalgo a.k.a. "Mañenguito" is an educator and percussionist associated with Latin jazz.-Early years:Hidalgo was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico where he received his primary education. His grandfather had also been a musician as well as his father, José Manuel Hidalgo "Mañengue", who was...
, with important writing and performing contributions from Chill Factor and her daughter Diana. The new millennium
Millennium
A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....
saw the release of two recordings, Perpetual emotion and a crossover homage to one of Brazil's great composers, Flora sings Milton Nascimento
Milton Nascimento
-Biography:Nascimento's mother was the maid Maria Nascimento. As a baby, Milton Nascimento was adopted by his mother's former employers: the couple Josino Brito Campos, a banker employee, mathematics teacher and electronic technician; and Lília Silva Campos, a music teacher and choir singer...
. In 2005, she reunited with her old Return to Forever
Return to Forever
Return to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...
bandleader, Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
. As of 2010, Purim is still actively touring.
Latin jazz
Latin jazz is the general term given to jazz with Latin American rhythms.The three main categories of Latin Jazz are Brazilian, Cuban and Puerto Rican:# Brazilian Latin Jazz includes bossa nova...
group called "Fourth World", which in addition to herself consisted of her husband Airto Moreira, Gary Meek, Gary Brown, Jose Neto and Jovino Santos Neto. They would release a number of albums and 12" singles; "Fourth World", "Encounters With The Fourth World", "Last Journey" and an album featuring remixes to their songs by several popular electronic DJ's from around the world called Return Journey. The band's last album release was in 2000.
In 1996, Purim and her husband Airto collaborated with P.M. Dawn on the song "Non-Fiction Burning" for the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio
Red Hot + Rio
Red Hot + Rio is a compilation album produced by Paul Heck as part of the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series intended to promote AIDS awareness. This installment is a contemporary tribute to the Bossa nova sound, especially the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim...
produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
.
One of Purim's major musical influences is the Brazilian musician Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a greatly beloved musical figure in the history of Brazilian music, known for his abilities at orchestration and improvisation, as well as being a record producer and...
. She has said that Pascoal "play
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, percussion, and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
. He is one of the most complete musicians that I ever met." He also helped train her voice. She also owes a great debt to Chick Corea
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
, discovering the fusion jazz style for which she is best known when Corea asked her to add vocals to some recordings of his compositions.
Purim has a rare six octave voice, a faculty she shares with Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
, Bobby Brown
Bobby Brown
Robert Barisford "Bobby" Brown is an American R&B singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and dancer. After success in pop group New Edition, Brown began his solo career in 1987 and had a string of Top 10 Billboard hits, culminating in a Grammy Award. He was a pioneer of New Jack Swing music, a...
, Yma Sumac
Yma Súmac
Yma Sumac was a noted Peruvian soprano. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous proponents of exotica music. She became an international success based on her extreme vocal range, which was said to be "well over four octaves" and was sometimes claimed to span even five octaves at her peak.Yma...
, and Taborah Johnson
Taborah Johnson
Taborah Johnson , also known as Tabby Johnson, is a Canadian singer and actor. She is the sister of actor Clark Johnson and rock and jazz singer Molly Johnson....
. Her vocal style is influenced by Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Vaughan
Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...
and Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...
which drifts from lyrics to wordlessness without ever losing touch with the melody and rhythm. She expanded her vocal repertoire during early tours with Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
. While touring the world for three years with Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra in the 1980s, she broadened her repertoire to include traditional mainstream jazz, bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
, and doing numbers in 4/4 time instead of the traditional Brazilian 2/4 beat.
Purim has confided that in recent decades "There are two albums that are at my bedside. They are Miles Ahead
Miles Ahead
Miles Ahead is a jazz album by Miles Davis that was released in 1957 on Columbia CL 1041. This was the first album following Birth of the Cool that Davis recorded with Gil Evans, with whom he would go on to release albums such as Porgy and Bess and Sketches of Spain...
, the first collaboration between Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
and Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
and Blow by Blow
Blow by Blow
Blow by Blow is the seventh album by British guitarist Jeff Beck, released on Epic Records in 1975, and recorded in October 1974. It is the first under his name alone...
, by Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
. They are with me every night."
Faith
Purim's mother is Brazilian. Her father, Naum Purim, is Romanian. who emigrated to Brazil from the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. Purim
Purim
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...
is also the name of the annual Jewish festival commemorating the deliverance of the Jews from a Babylon
Babylon
Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...
ian plot to exterminate them, as recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther
Esther
Esther , born Hadassah, is the eponymous heroine of the Biblical Book of Esther.According to the Bible, she was a Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus...
. Hence Flora Purim presumably has Jewish ancestry through her father. She also adheres to the Bahá'í Faith
Bahá'í Faith
The Bahá'í Faith is a monotheistic religion founded by Bahá'u'lláh in 19th-century Persia, emphasizing the spiritual unity of all humankind. There are an estimated five to six million Bahá'ís around the world in more than 200 countries and territories....
thanks in large part to Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
. Gillespie's death in 1993 prompted Purim, in 2002 to comment on his influence, saying that [he was]:
"...still a part of my life. If you ever come to my house, there are pictures of him all over my walls...
Awards
- 4-time winner Down BeatDown BeatDown Beat is an American magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois...
s Best Female Jazz Vocalist - 2-time Grammy nomineeGrammy NomineesThe Grammy Nominees is a series of various artists compilation albums celebrating the best of the music industry. Albums are released before the airing of the annual Grammy Awards. All of the songs on the albums are Grammy nominated in the year released. The first one of these albums was released...
for Best Female Jazz Performance - Performed on 2 Grammy-winning albums -
- Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra (Best Jazz Album)
- Hart's Planet Drum (Best World Music Album)
- In September 2002, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique CardosoFernando Henrique CardosoFernando Henrique Cardoso – also known by his initials FHC – was the 34th President of the Federative Republic of Brazil for two terms from January 1, 1995 to December 31, 2002. He is an accomplished sociologist, professor and politician...
named Purim and Moreira to the "Order of Rio Branco", one of Brazil's highest honors for those who have significantly contributed to the promotion of Brazil's international relations.
As leader
- 1964: Flora e MPM" (RCA Brasil)
- 1973: Butterfly DreamsButterfly Dreams- Personnel :* Flora Purim - vocals* Joe Henderson - flute, tenor saxophone* George Duke - electric and acoustic piano, clavinet, synthesizer* David Amaro - electric and acoustic guitar* Ernie Hood - zither* Stanley Clarke - electric and acoustic bass...
(MilestoneMilestone RecordsMilestone Records is a United States based jazz record label, founded in 1966 by Orrin Keepnews and Dick Katz in New York City. The company was incorporated into Fantasy Records in 1972, since then it has been used for reissues as well as for new recordings....
) - 1974: 500 Miles High" (Milestone Records)
- 1974: Stories To Tell (Milestone Records)
- 1976: Open Your Eyes You Can Fly (Milestone Records)
- 1976: Encounter (Milestone Records)
- 1977: Nothing Will Be as It Was...Tomorrow (Warner Brothers)
- 1978: Everyday Everynight (Warner Brothers)
- 1978: That's What She Said (Milestone Records)
- 1979: Carry On (Warner)
- 1988: The Midnight Sun (Virgin)
- 1992: Queen of the Night (Sound Wave)
- 1995: Speed of Light (B&W Music)
- 2000: Flora Purim sings Milton Nascimento (Narada)
- 2001: Perpetual Emotion (Narada)
- 2003: Speak No EvilSpeak No Evil (Flora Purim's album)Speak no evil is a 2003 album by the Brazilian singer Flora Purim. The name of the album is a tribute to a 1965 album and song by Wayne Shorter, which was recorded in this CD....
(Narada) - 2005: Flora's Song (Narada)
With Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira
Airto Moreira is a Brazilian jazz drummer and percussionist. Airto is married to jazz singer Flora Purim, and their daughter Diana Moreira is also a singer. He currently resides in Los Angeles.-Biography:...
- 1985: Three Way Mirror(Reference Recordings)
- 1985: Humble People (Concord)
- 1986: The Magicians (Concord Crossover)
- 1988: The Colours of Life (In+Out)
- 1989: The Sun Is Out (Concord)
With Fourth World
- Fourth World Recorded live at Ronnie Scott'sLive at Ronnie Scott's (Fourth World album)Live at Ronnie Scott's is a live album by the Brazilian jazz group Fourth World, that was released by the Ronnie Scott's Jazz House record label in 1992....
(1992) - Fourth World (1994)
- Fourth World [live] (1995)
- Encounters of the Fourth World (1995)
- Last Journey (1999)
As contributor
- Duke PearsonDuke PearsonDuke Pearson was an American jazz pianist and composer. Allmusic notes him as being a "big part in shaping the Blue Note label's hard bop direction in the 1960s as a producer."-History:...
- How InsensitiveHow Insensitive (album)How Insensitive is the fourteenth album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring performances by Pearson's band augmented by a choir, recorded over three sessions in 1969 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:...
(1969) - Duke Pearson - It Could Only Happen with YouIt Could Only Happen with YouIt Could Only Happen with You is the final album by American pianist and arranger Duke Pearson featuring performances recorded in 1970 but not released on the Blue Note label until 1974.-Reception:...
(1970) - Chick CoreaChick CoreaArmando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
and Return to ForeverReturn to ForeverReturn to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...
- Return to ForeverReturn to Forever (album)Return to Forever is a jazz fusion album by Chick Corea, simultaneously functioning as the debut album by the band of the same name. Unlike later albums by the group, it was released by the ECM label and produced by Manfred Eicher. The album was not released in the USA until 1975...
(1972) - Chick CoreaChick CoreaArmando Anthony "Chick" Corea is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever...
and Return to ForeverReturn to ForeverReturn to Forever is a jazz fusion group founded and led by keyboardist Chick Corea. Through its existence, the band has cycled through a number of different members, with the only consistent band mate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke...
- Light as a FeatherLight as a FeatherLight as a Feather is the second studio album of fusion band Return to Forever, led by keyboardist Chick Corea.The second and last album by the first line-up of Return to Forever was recorded in the same year eight months later. The style of the music remains mostly the same though vocal tracks...
(1972) - SantanaSantana (band)Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
- WelcomeWelcome (Santana album)Welcome is the fifth studio album by Santana, released in 1973. It followed the jazz-fusion formula that the preceding Caravanserai had inaugurated, but with an expanded and different lineup this time...
(1973) - SantanaSantana (band)Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
- BorbolettaBorbolettaBorboletta is the sixth studio album by Santana. It is one of his jazz-funk-fusion oriented albums, along with "Caravanserai", "Welcome", "Love, Devotion and Surrender" with John McLaughlin, and "Illuminations" with Alice Coltrane, Jack DeJohnette and Jules Broussard...
(1974) - Hermeto PascoalHermeto PascoalHermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a greatly beloved musical figure in the history of Brazilian music, known for his abilities at orchestration and improvisation, as well as being a record producer and...
- Slaves MassSlaves MassSlaves Mass is a 1976 album by Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal. Recorded for Warner Bros. Records, the album featured some of the most beloved Brazilian musicians of the time.-Tracklisting:...
(1976) - OPAOpa (band)Opa was an american Jazz fusion band formed by uruguayan integrants . Started in 1970s, the band released whose two albums in U.S. :Goldenwings and Magic Time ,...
- Magic Time (1977) - P.M. Dawn and Airto – Red Hot + RioRed Hot + RioRed Hot + Rio is a compilation album produced by Paul Heck as part of the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series intended to promote AIDS awareness. This installment is a contemporary tribute to the Bossa nova sound, especially the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim...
- "Non-Fiction Burning" (1996) - Lawson RollinsLawson RollinsLawson Rollins is an American guitarist and composer from North Carolina noted for his lightning-fast speed solos, virtuoso fingerstyle technique, and melodic compositional skills featured in his recordings...
- Infinita (2008) - Lawson RollinsLawson RollinsLawson Rollins is an American guitarist and composer from North Carolina noted for his lightning-fast speed solos, virtuoso fingerstyle technique, and melodic compositional skills featured in his recordings...
- EspiritoEspiritoEspirito is the second album by Lawson Rollins. Rollins composed all of the music and co-produced the album with Persian-American musician and producer Shahin Shahida and multi-platinum producer Dominic Camardella...
(2010)
As sidewoman
With Dizzy GillespieDizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
- RhythmstickRhythmstickRhythmstick is a 1990 album and video by Dizzy Gillespie and CTI Records All-Stars.-Tracklisting:#"Barbados" #"Friday Night at the Cadillac Club" #"Nana" #"Caribe"...
CTI RecordsCTI RecordsCTI Records was a jazz record label founded in 1967 by producer/A&R manager Creed Taylor. Initially, CTI was a subsidiary of A&M Records, but the label went independent in 1970...
(1990) - Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London (2001)
With Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
- Cool Summer (2006)
External links
- Bio on the Flora Purim Official Website.
- Europe Jazz Network Musicians, Flora Purim.
- Berkeley Agency, Flora Purim and Airto
- Mondomix - Amérique Latine > Brazil >, Portrait of Flora Purim.
- Holston, Mark, The Queen of Fusion Returns.
- New England Jazz History Database - Photos
- Flora Purim interview at Allaboutjazz.com