Song:Tristeza
Album:Three Originals
Baden Powell may be the greatest Brazilian guitarist of all time. In North America, he's not well known except to those who admire other guitarist. But he was very popular for decades in Brazil. He was born Roberto Baden Powell de Aquino Aug. 6, 1937 in Varre e Sai, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His father was violinist Lino de Aquino and introduced Roberto to music at an early age. He was also an admirer of Boy Scouts founder Robert Baden Powell and that's where the name came from. Roberto was known professionally as Baden Powell. He studied violin and guitar as a child but by 1955 he was playing jazz in the Steve Barnard Orquestra. When bassist Ed Lincoln was starting a new trio, he picked Baden Powell to join in 1956. They were called The Hotel Plaza Trio. They were popular on the Brazilian jazz scene. Powell started writing songs and met lyricist Vinicius de Moraes in 1962. They would write many songs together. He finally started recording solo in 1966 on MPS Records. Tristeza is from the 1966 album Tristeza On Guitar and you can get a comp of three albums from that era on this 2CD set from Verve. For the most part, Powell played classical guitar only and never played electric guitar. He moved to France in 1968 and continued to tour Europe and Brazil in the 70s. His career faded partially due to health problems and Powell went into semi retirement in the 80s. A move back to Brazil in the 90s got him recording again and public recognitionat home in Brazil. But those long term health problems led to his death from pneumonia on Sept. 26, 2000 at age 63. His legacy continues with his guitarist son Louis Marcel Powell de Aquino and his pianist son Phillippe Baden Powell de Aquino. Here's Baden Powell performing Tristeza on the 1970 TV show Canto On Guitar.
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