Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Baden Powell de Aquino was born on August 6, 1937 in Varre-Sai in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Simply known as Baden Powell, his father, a scouting enthusiast, named him after Robert Baden Powell founder of the boy scouts. Growing up in a Rio suburb from age three, proved profoundly influential, as his house was a stop for popular musicians. He started guitar lessons with Jayme Florence, a famous choro guitarist in the 1940s, and soon proved to be a young virtuoso, winning many talent competitions before he was a teenager. Fascinated by swing and jazz, his main influences were firmly rooted in the Brazilian guitar canon.
By fifteen, he was playing professionally, accompanying singers and bands in various styles. In 1955, Powell was playing with the Steve Bernard Orquestra at the Boite Plaza, formed the new Hotel Plaza Trio with Ed Lincoln and with their young musician friends took part in after-hours jam sessions, gaining notice in the growing Brazilian jazz scene.
Achieving much wider fame in 1959 by convincing Billy Blanco to put lyrics to one of his compositions resulted in a song called “Samba Triste” and quickly became very successful for Baden. In 1962, he met the poet-diplomat Vinicius de Moraes and began a collaboration that yielded some true classics of 1960s Brazilian music. Together they transcended the prevailing bossa nova by fusing Afro-Brazilian with samba. During those years he released several recordings on Brazilian French and German labels and his 1966 “Tristeza on Guitar”, is considered by many to be a high point in his career.
Powell would go on to be the house guitarist for Elenco Records, the guitarist on Elis Regina’s TV show “O Fino da Bossa”, partner with poet Paulo Cesar Pinheiro and produced another series of Afro-Brazilian inspired music, tour Europe and record profusely until his health began failing him due to alcohol and cigarette abuse and his star dimmed. Returning home to Brazil he continued to record and perform and a renewed public recognition of his work came around that time. However, after many years of abuse, and he fell terminally ill and on September 26, 2000 guitarist and vocalist Baden Powell passed away in Rio de Janeiro of pneumonia triggered by diabetes.
His recordings span five decades beginning with his first appearances as accompanist on a handful of big band and samba recordings from the 1950s. He recorded his first solo album in 1959, but it was released in 1961. H e leaves us with a discography of some 55 recordings as a leader and numerous more as a sideman. He was one of Brazil’s most prominent and celebrated guitarists.
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