José Mauro, the neglected Brazilian singer-songwriter who gained a cult following, in absentia, after disappearing within the Nineteen Seventies, has died after a brief sickness. Far Out Recordings, the file label whose reissue of Mauro’s Obnoxius led to the invention that he was alive, confirmed the information. Mauro was 75 years outdated.
Born in Jacarepaguá, in Rio de Janeiro, Mauro studied composition with the live performance pianist Wilma Graça and guitar below Brazilian virtuosos Baden Powell, Roberto Menescal, and Wanda Sá. His early songs earned the eye of producer Roberto Quartin, who launched him to songwriting accomplice Ana Maria Bahiana and went on to launch Mauro’s music on his personal label, Quartin.
That output comprised simply two albums, Obnoxius and A Viagem Das Horas, each launched within the Nineteen Seventies. They flew below the radar, and shortly after, he did, too. Although his music was not political, rumors swirled that he had fallen sufferer to Brazil’s navy junta, which murdered a whole bunch of dissidents and exiled artists deemed threatening to the regime. Others, together with a few of his collaborators, believed he had died in a motorcycle accident. His work was regularly rediscovered, partly thanks, in North America and Europe, to tastemaker producers like Madlib and Floating Factors.
In 2016, Far Out introduced the circumstances of his presumed dying in supplies accompanying its acclaimed reissue of Obnoxius. However the renewed consideration prompted a stunning discovery: Mauro was dwelling out of the general public eye, in Rio de Janeiro, having give up his profession to take up work at music theaters. Far Out tracked him down to advertise the reissue of A Viagem Das Horas, although Mauro had lengthy been unable to carry out as a result of onset of Parkinson’s illness. He instructed the label, “My physique pushed me away from music, well being grew to become a stumbling block for me. If I had the power to hold on with composing, I’d have… all the time targeted on reaching a way of magnificence, a way of marvel.”
