1. Laurindo Jose de Araujo Almeida Nobrega Neto, popularly known as Laurindo Almeida, was a Brazilian guitarist and composer in classical, jazz, and Latin music.
22 Facts About Laurindo Almeida
1. 2.
Laurindo Almeida was one of the pioneers in the creation of bossa nova.
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Laurindo Almeida's discography encompasses more than a hundred recordings over five decades.
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Laurindo Jose de Araujo Almeida Nobrega Neto was born in the village of Prainha, Brazil near Santos in the state of Sao Paulo.
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Laurindo Almeida became known for playing both classical Spanish and popular guitar.
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Laurindo Almeida moved to the United States in 1947; a trip financed when one of his compositions, a song known as "Johnny Peddler" became a hit recorded by the Andrews Sisters.
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In Los Angeles, Laurindo Almeida immediately went to work in film studio orchestras.
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Laurindo Almeida was first introduced to the jazz public as a featured guitarist with the Stan Kenton band in the late 1940s during the height of its success.
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Laurindo Almeida's guitar playing captures the keen poignancy and rhythmic elan of Brazilian music with superb assurance and taste.
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Laurindo Almeida's classical recording discography includes the debut recordings of two major guitar works, Heitor Villa-Lobos' Guitar Concerto and Radames Gnattali's Concerto de Copacabana.
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Laurindo Almeida made cameo appearances in the 1954 movie A Star is Born and on a 1959 episode of Peter Gunn titled "Skin Deep".
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Laurindo Almeida's performing credits included major motion pictures such as Good-bye, My Lady, Funny Girl, and The Godfather.
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Laurindo Almeida composed the complete film scores for ten motion pictures and portions for hundreds of others, including Charles and Ray Eames's 1957 film Day of the Dead.
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Laurindo Almeida underscored and performed for Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven.
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Some articles report Laurindo Almeida won at least one Oscar award for film composition; however, while he was involved in films that were nominated, he did not receive an Oscar for his film work.
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In 1980, Laurindo Almeida joined forces with Charlie Byrd on a series of highly regarded recordings, including Latin Odyssey, Brazilian Soul and Tango.
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Laurindo Almeida recorded with Baden Powell, Stan Getz and Herbie Mann, among others.
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Laurindo Almeida was nominated for sixteen Grammys and received the award five times:.
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Laurindo Almeida was teaching, recording and performing until the week before his death of leukemia on July 26,1995, at age 77 in Los Angeles, California.
20.
Laurindo Almeida's archives are housed at the US Library of Congress and at California State University, Northridge.
21.
Laurindo Almeida composed more than 1000 separate pieces, including 200 popular songs.
22.
In 1952 Laurindo Almeida formed his own publishing company, Brazilliance, which has been influential in the dissemination of Latin American music.