Sylvia Telles
Silvia D'Atri Telles (Brazilian Portuguese:
Life and career
Sylvia was born in 1934 in São Paulo, daughter of Paulo Telles and Maria Amelia D'Atri, her mother born in Paris of an Italian father and Brazilian mother. Her maternal grandfather Alessandro D'Atri was editor of the prestigious Révue du Brésil magazine published in Paris in French, Spanish and Italian from 1896. Her father was an aficionado of classical music.
Sylvia had the ambition to be a ballerina. She studied with Madeleine Rosay at the Teatro Municipal's corp de ballet in Rio de Janeiro, but she would also practice singing and playing the piano.[1]
In 1954, family friend Billy Blanco noticed her talent and introduced her to his associates in music, which led to launching her performing career in nightclubs. Around this time she met her first boyfriend João Gilberto, who four years later would himself revolutionize Brazilian music with the introduction of Bossa Nova, but the relationship did not last as the Telles family disdained the young strange Gilberto, then a vagabond artist without a regular permanent residence.
Her singing attracted the attention of the
Although Telles had preceded the advent of Bossa Nova, she began performing songs by such influential composers as
By the early 1960s, she had made her first trip to the
Telles had just recorded her second tribute to Jobim, 1966's The Music of Mr. Jobim (or Sings the Wonderful Songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim), and was travelling to a rustic weekend getaway with her boyfriend Horacinho de Carvalho before she was to fly to New York to work on an LP for Kapp Records. But on the way to the farm, Horacinho fell asleep at the wheel. It was the second time she had been in an asleep-at-the-wheel accident, surviving a minor one in 1964, but this time the car flipped several times, killing both of them.
She was 32.
Discography
- Carícia (Odeon, 1957)
- Silvia (Odeon, 1958)
- Amor De Gente Moça: Musicas De Antonio Carlos Jobim (Odeon, 1959)
- Amor Em Hi-Fi (Philips, 1960)
- U.S.A. (Philips, 1961)
- Bossa Balanço Balada (Elenco, 1963)
- Bossa Session (Elenco, 1964) - with Lúcio Alves and Roberto Menescal e seu conjunto
- It Might As Well Be Spring (Elenco, 1966) - U.S. release: The Face I Love (Kapp Records)
- The Music Of Mr. Jobim By Sylvia Telles (Elenco, 1966) - U.S. release: Sylvia Telles Sings The Wonderful Songs Of Antonio Carlos Jobim (Kapp Records)
- Reencontro (Elenco, 1966) - with Edu Lobo, Trio Tamba, and Quinteto Villa-Lobos
References
- ISBN 978-1-61374-574-8.
- Allmusic. Retrieved 2007-06-24.