1. Bola Sete got this nickname when he was the only black member of a small jazz group.
16 Facts About Bola Sete
1. 2.
Bola Sete's family were poor and often struggled with finding food.
3.
Bola Sete first began playing music when he found a Cavaquinho in his home.
4.
At age 10, Bola Sete was fostered by an affluent married couple who sent him to school and introduced him to classical music.
5.
Bola Sete later began performing in a semi-professional group that played Brazilian folk music and samba.
6.
Bola Sete returned to Rio after the end of the war.
7.
Bola Sete then moved to a conservatory in Sao Paulo where the guitar teachers were superior.
8.
Bola Sete's career broadened between 1952 and '58 when he played clubs and hotels in Italy.
9.
Bola Sete then returned to Brazil and started touring throughout South America, during which time the manager of Sheraton Hotels noticed him and brought him to the US to play in the hotels.
10.
Bola Sete played in New York's Park Sheraton, then moved to San Francisco to play in the Sheraton Palace.
11.
Dizzy Gillespie was staying there at the time and heard Bola Sete playing every day.
12.
When Gillespie brought his pianist, Lalo Schifrin, to the hotel, he discovered that Schifrin and Bola Sete had played together in Argentina.
13.
Bola Sete toured with Gillespie, then returned to San Francisco, where he joined the Vince Guaraldi trio.
14.
Bola Sete became well known in the US, and his partnership with Guaraldi yielded several well-received recordings.
15.
Bola Sete appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 with this trio and released an album of his performance, Bola Sete at the Monterey Jazz Festival, which peaked at No 20 on the Billboard Jazz chart.
16.
Bola Sete often played a 13-stringed instrument he devised himself called the "lutar".