Deodato was nominated for three Grammy Awards and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1974 for "Also Sprach Zarathustra (2001)." The song peaked at number 2 on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 in March 1973.[6] It reached number 3 in Canada and number 7 on the British charts.[7][8]
Biography
Deodato, born in Rio De Janeiro on June 22, 1943, began his musical life on accordion when he was 12 years old, and then piano two years later. He studied orchestration, conducting and arranging. He played bossa nova in bands with Paulo Silvino and Orlandivo, then formed his own band, which featured João Palma, Sergio Barroso, Ugo Marotta, Henri Ackselrud and guitarist Celso Brando, who was later replaced by Roberto Menescal in 1962. Eumir’s paternal grandfather was a marble craftsman from Custonaci, Sicily.[9]
His second album, Deodato 2, reached number 19 on the Billboard album chart, and the single "Rhapsody in Blue" reached No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973.[11] His interpretation of Pavane pour une infante défunte ("Pavane for a Dead Princess") by Maurice Ravel was used in the 1970s by an Australian television station as background music.
In 1978, he had an orchestral hit with "Whistle Bump" from the LP titled Love Island. The track promoted the widespread use of whistles in nightclubs at the time. However, his popularity in the discos was solidified when he released the 1979 single Night Cruiser from the album of the same name, which earned him a third Grammy nomination for Best R&B Instrumental Performance.[12] Deodato continued recording through the 1980s. In 1985, he had two hits, "S.O.S., Fire in the Sky" and "Are You For Real", on Billboard magazine's top 20 Dance chart.[13]
In 1998, Deodato invited his old friend and fellow Brazilian jazz impresario Arnaldo DeSouteiro to co-produce with him the first official CD reissues of all his albums from the 1960s, in a total of nine releases. Among them, Inútil Paisagem (reissued by JSR in co-production with Universal Music), Idéias, and all the albums from the Os Catedráticos series that were digitally remixed and remastered by audio engineer Rodrigo de Castro Lopes under the direct supervision of both Deodato and DeSouteiro.
He recorded Live in Rio in 2007. In 2009, Prelude was reissued for the first time in Asia on SACD and SHM-CD formats under the supervision of Arnaldo DeSouteiro. In 2011, he released the album The Crossing, which he produced with Lino Nicolosi and Pino Nicolosi at Nicolosi Productions, with guest vocalist Al Jarreau. In 2010 he played the rhodes piano in the album Oasis produced and performed by Marita Pauli. In 2018 he arranged and conducted the strings orchestra in the album The First released by Riccardo Dalli Cardillo.
Arranging and producing
Since the 1960s, Deodato has been in demand as a producer and arranger. He has worked on more than 500 albums, and 15 have reached platinum status as defined by the RIAA.
Deodato wrote orchestral arrangements for the films The Gentle Rain (with original soundtrack by Luiz Bonfá in 1965), and ""The Adventurers" (with soundtrack by Antonio Carlos Jobim and additional score by Deodato in 1969), as well as the original soundtracks for ""Target Risk", "The Reporter", The Black Pearl (1977), The Onion Field (1979), ""Beat Street (1980) and Bossa Nova (2000), among many others.
He also produced and arranged for the movies "Body Rock" and "The Ghostbusters II".
Personal life
Eumir Deodato was married to Ruth Deodato from 1963 to 1999. Their daughter Kennya Deodato (b. 1968) is married to actor Stephen Baldwin.[15] Their granddaughter Hailey Bieber is married to Canadian singer Justin Bieber.[16]