Ivan Lins
Encyclopedia
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 musician. He has been an active performer and songwriter of Brazilian popular music (MPB)
Música Popular Brasileira
Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...
and 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...
for over 30 years. His first hit, Madalena, was recorded by Elis Regina
Elis Regina
Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, known simply as Elis Regina was an important singer of Brazilian popular music. She became nationally renowned in 1965, after singing Arrastão in the first edition of TV Excelsior festival song contest, and soon joined O Fino da Bossa, a television program on TV Record...
in 1970. Beyond his own performance of his compositions, Simone
Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira
Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira, better known as Simone, is a Brazilian singer and a major performer of Música Popular Brasileira who has recorded more than 31 albums.-Biography:...
is his most notable and respected interpreter. His 1989 hit song "Love Dance" is one of the most re-recorded songs in musical history.
Testifying to Lins' importance as a composer is the frequency with which tribute albums and new covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of his compositions appear. His jazz classics have been recorded by many notable international artists including 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."...
, 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...
, Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
, Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
, George Benson
George Benson
George Benson is a ten Grammy Award winning American musician, whose production career began at the age of twenty-one as a jazz guitarist....
, The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer
The Manhattan Transfer is an American vocal music group. There have been two manifestations of the group, with Tim Hauser being the only person to be part of both...
, Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur
Diane Schuur is an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Deedles", she has won two Grammy Awards, headlined many of the world's most prestigious music venues, including Carnegie Hall and The White House and has toured the world performing with such greats as Quincy Jones, Stan Getz, B. B...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Nancy Wilson
Nancy Wilson (singer)
Nancy Wilson is an American singer with more than 70 albums, and three Grammy Awards. She has been labeled a singer of blues, jazz, cabaret and pop; a "consummate actress"; and "the complete entertainer." The title she prefers, however, is song stylist...
, Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias
Eliane Elias is a Brazilian jazz pianist, arranger, vocalist and songwriter.-Biography:...
, Patti Austin
Patti Austin
-Life and career:Austin was born in Harlem, New York. She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents....
, Sting, Toots Thielemans
Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...
, Take 6
Take 6
Take 6 is an American a cappella gospel music sextet formed in 1980 on the campus of Oakwood College in Huntsville, Alabama. The group sings in a contemporary style, integrating R&B and jazz influences into their devotional songs and has 10 Grammy wins, 10 Dove Awards, one Soul Train Award and two...
, Lee Ritenour
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...
, David Benoit, Carlos do Carmo
Carlos do Carmo
Carlos do Carmo, ComIH is a Portuguese fado singer, one of the finest in the "Lisbon Song"...
, Mark Murphy
Mark Murphy (singer)
Mark Murphy is an American jazz singer based in New York. He is most noted for his definitive and unique vocalese and vocal improvisations with both melody and lyrics...
, Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
, Sérgio Mendes
Sergio Mendes
Sérgio Santos Mendes is a Brazilian musician. He has released over thirty-five albums, and plays bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk....
, Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
and countless others.
Life
Ivan Lins was born in Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. He spent several years in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, while his father, a naval engineer, continued his graduate studies at M.I.T., studied at the Military College in Rio. He later received a degree in industrial chemical engineering
Chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is the branch of engineering that deals with physical science , and life sciences with mathematics and economics, to the process of converting raw materials or chemicals into more useful or valuable forms...
from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro is one of the largest federal universities of Brazil, where public universities comprise the majority of the best and most qualified institutions...
. He considered a career in volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
before discovering his considerable musical talent. Ivan Lins currently resides in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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...
.
Work
Ivan Lins has released albums regularly and penned several standards, such as Love Dance, Começar de Novo (Starting All Over) (the English lyric version is entitled The Island, with lyrics by AlanAlan Bergman
Alan Bergman is an American lyricist and songwriter.-Life & career:Born in Brooklyn, New York, he studied at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UCLA. His involvement in the entertainment industry began in the early 1950s as a director of children's television shows...
and Marilyn Bergman
Marilyn Bergman
Marilyn Bergman is a composer, songwriter and author.She was born Marilyn Keith in Brooklyn, New York and studied psychology and English at New York University...
), and Velas Içadas, which have made their way north into the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz lexicon. He recorded for Reprise
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
/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 early 1990s.
In the mid-eighties, Lins recorded a jazz fusion album with Dave Grusin
Dave Grusin
David Grusin is an American composer, arranger and pianist. Grusin has composed many scores for feature films and television, and has won numerous awards for his soundtrack and record work, including an Academy award and 12 Grammys...
and Lee Ritenour
Lee Ritenour
Lee Mack Ritenour is an American jazz guitarist who has recorded over 42 albums, appeared on over 3000 sessions, and has charted over 30 instrumental and vocal contemporary jazz hits since 1976. One of his most popular songs was the smash hit, “Is It You” in 1981. Ritenour is considered to be a...
titled "Harlequin
Harlequin
Harlequin or Arlecchino in Italian, Arlequin in French, and Arlequín in Spanish is the most popularly known of the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian Commedia dell'arte and its descendant, the Harlequinade.-Origins:...
" which was a critical and commercial success. Lins also composed the soundtrack for the Brazilian film Dois Córregos.
Lins' longtime composing partner is Vitor Martins. Their songs typically feature lush harmony with a distinctive jazz sensibility. One signature voicing he often employs in his own performances is the delayed addition of a #11 to a sus13 chord, or the delayed addition of a b9 to a sus13 chord.
Ivan Lins appeared as guest performer on the albums Dois Mundos (1998) and Recorded in Rio (2003) of the Dutch artist Josee Koning. Also he appeared on the album Call Me Irresponsible
Call Me Irresponsible (album)
Call Me Irresponsible is the third studio album released by Grammy Award-winning Canadian jazz singer Michael Bublé. The album was released on May 1, 2007.-Release:...
(2007) of the artist Michael Bublé
Michael Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé is a Canadian singer. He has won several awards, including three Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in Canada and the UK. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was...
and with singer/songwriter Paula Cole on her 2007 CD, Courage (Paula Cole album)
Courage (Paula Cole album)
Courage is Paula Cole's fourth studio album. It marks her return to the music scene after nearly a decade-long hiatus. The album is a bit of a departure from her previous albums towards more of a jazz and folk sound this time. "14" was the first single from the album, while "Comin' Down" was...
, singing a duet with her on the song "Hard to be Soft".
Jazz reporter and music critic David Adler reported Lins’ October 2000 Carnegie Hall concert performance and tribute to him. The event corresponded with the tribute album titled A Love Affair, released by Telarc Records. Headline performers from diverse genres participated in celebrating the man and his music on the recording and in the world-class performance hall, a noteworthy accomplishment in the history of any musician.
Lins maintains an active touring schedule, including a 2003 appearance at The Blue Note in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In May, 2008, he returned to New York, performing with Rosa Passos
Rosa Passos
Rosa Passos is a Brazilian singer and guitarist born in Bahia.Passos began playing piano at age thirteen, but after listening to Dorival Caymmi and João Gilberto she abandoned the instrument to become a singer. In the late 1960s, Passos began appearing on television and at music festivals...
at Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
.
Ivan Lins is a political artist and musical icon in his country.
Awards
In 2005Latin Grammy Awards of 2005
The 6th Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium on Thursday, November 3, 2005. It was the first ceremony to be broadcast by Univision in the United States. Ivan Lins was the big winner winning two awards including Album of the Year. He is the first and only...
, he won two Latin Grammy Awards; Album of the Year
Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year
The Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally...
and Best MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) Album for Cantando Histórias
Cantando Histórias
Cantando Histórias is a Latin Grammy winning album by Ivan Lins. It is the first and only Brazilian and Portuguese language album to win the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year to date.-Tracklisting:# Abre Alas# Guarde Nos Olhos# Dinorah, Dinorah...
. He became the first Brazilian artist and Portuguese language artist to win the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year. No other Brazilian artist or Portuguese language artist has won the award since then.
Ivan Lins was nominated for three Latin Grammy Awards in 2009
Latin Grammy Awards of 2009
The 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards took place on November 5, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was the second time the show took place in Las Vegas. Juan Gabriel was honored as the Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year on November 4, the day prior to the...
for his latest album, Regência: Vince Mendoza
Regência: Vince Mendoza
-Tracklisting:# Daquilo que eu Sei# A Gente Merece ser Feliz# Formigueiro# Arlequim Desconhecido# Comecar De Novo# Let Us Be Always# E Ouro em Po# O Fado# Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai# Art of Survival# Lua Soberana-Latin Grammy Awards:...
performed with The Metropole Orchestra. He was nominated for Record of the Year
Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year
The Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year is an honor presented annually at the Latin Grammy Awards, a ceremony that recognizes excellence and creates a wider awareness of cultural diversity and contributions of Latin recording artists in the United States and internationally...
("Arlequim Desconhecido") and Album of the Year. He won the award for Best MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) Album.
Discography
- Agora (1970)
- Deixa O Trem Seguir (1971)
- Quem Sou Eu (1972)
- Modo Livre (1974)
- Chama Acesa (1975)
- Somos Todos Iguais Nesta Noite (1977)
- Começar de novo (1977)
- Nos Dias de Hoje (1978)
- A Noite (1979)
- Novo Tempo (1980)
- Daquilo Que Eu Sei (1981)
- Depois dos Temporais (1983)
- Juntos (1984)
- Ivan Lins (1986)
- Mãos (1987)
- Love Dance (1988)
- Amar Assim (1989)
- Awa Yiô (1993)
- A Doce Presença de Ivan Lins (1995)
- Anjo de Mim (1995)
- I'm Not Alone (1996)
- Acervo Especial, Vol. 2 (1997)
- Ivan Lins/Chucho Valdés/Irakere/Ao Vivo (1996)
- Viva Noel: Tributo a Noel Rosa Vols. 1, 2 (1997)
- Live at MCG (1999)
- Dois Córregos (1999)
- Um Novo Tempo (1998)
- A Cor Do Pôr-Do-Sol (2000)
- Jobiniando (2001)
- Love Songs - A Quem Me Faz Feliz (2002)
- I Love Mpb - Amor (2004)
- Cantando HistóriasCantando HistóriasCantando Histórias is a Latin Grammy winning album by Ivan Lins. It is the first and only Brazilian and Portuguese language album to win the Latin Grammy for Album of the Year to date.-Tracklisting:# Abre Alas# Guarde Nos Olhos# Dinorah, Dinorah...
(2004) - Acariocando (2006)
- Saudades de Casa (2007)
- Regência: Vince MendozaRegência: Vince Mendoza-Tracklisting:# Daquilo que eu Sei# A Gente Merece ser Feliz# Formigueiro# Arlequim Desconhecido# Comecar De Novo# Let Us Be Always# E Ouro em Po# O Fado# Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai# Art of Survival# Lua Soberana-Latin Grammy Awards:...
(2009)