![]() ![]() He has had an abiding interest in psychic phenomena, mysticism, and the supernatural. (Ben was the maiden name of his Ethiopian-born mother, Sílvia Saint Ben Lima.) In 1989, he changed his name to Jorge Benjor. Jorge adopted the stage name “Jorge Ben,” which he used for almost 30 years. Sergio Mendes, who was a year older, was another regular in the alley's clubs, leading nightly jam sessions. In the early 1960s, he began performing in the Copacabana neighborhood's Beco das Garrafas or “Bottles Alley” – a tiny, dead-end street with small nightclubs that is known as the birthplace of bossa nova. So he developed his own style, playing with only his thumb and forefinger. Like many musicians from his generation, started to take his guitar playing seriously only after he heard João Gilberto but found it hard to imitate the complicated bossa nova harmonies. McGowan and Pessanha ( The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil) describe how he developed his style: ![]() Jorge got his first guitar at age 18 and began teaching himself to play. Ataulfo Alves was an influence leading young Jorge to music. His mother hoped he would become a pediatrician. Although his stevedore father, Augusto Menezes, had composed some carnaval songs, he wanted Jorge to become a lawyer. At home, his family liked to listen to a family friend, the composer Ataulfo Alves to the “king of baião” Luiz Gonzaga and to the crooner Nelson Gonçalves.īefore choosing music, soccer was the career goal of Jorge Menezes and, for a short time, he played with Flamengo, Rio's most popular team. (One important source gives Decemas his birthdate.) Growing up in Rio's Northern Zone, he sang in his church choir and participated in carnaval parades. Jorge Duílio Ben Zabella Lima de Menezes was born in Madureira, a working class area of Rio de Janeiro, on March 22, 1942. And I'll play several of the hundreds of recordings that have been made of the tune. ![]() During the next three weeks, I'll tell you about the composer and his song. ![]()
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