Flora Purim

THE DESCRIPTION OR BIOGRAPHY IS INCOMPLETE.  IT IS CENTRED AROUND THE PERIOD OF THE ARTIST'S WORK WITH MELT2000/B&W MUSIC

A Jewish girl from Rio de Janeiro, Flora Purim was born on 6 March 1942 into a musical family. Her Ukranian father was the first violinist with the Rio Symphony Orchestra and her Brazilian mother was a classical pianist who packed the child off to piano lessons at the age of eight. Flora played both piano and guitar before she began to stretch her voice. Her vocal range originally covered about three octaves, but under the guidance of Hermeto Pascoal she gradually increased it to six.
In the mid Sixties, Pascoal was the co-leader, with percussionist Airto Moreira, of Quarteto Novo, a legendary Brazilian group which mixed jazz with radical protest songs in defiance of the repressive regime of the time. After an initial series of confrontations, Flora and Airto realised they were made for each other and formed what has proven to be an enduring partnership. For thirty years, Moreira and Purim have been inseparable, touring and recording constantly together.
Following a military coup in Brazil in 1967, the couple went to live in the United States, where they became vitally involved in the scene which produced the first commercially successful 'electric' jazz groups of the seventies. Flora toured Europe with Stan Getz and developed her astonishing vocal pyrotechnics with the Gil Evans band before joining Airto, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Joe Farrell in Return To Forever. She jammed with Carlos Santana and Janis Joplin at outdoor festivals in seventies California and featured on several classic albums, including 'Return To Forever' and 'Light As A Feather'.
The mid 70s were a dark time for Flora Purim, but she never stopped working and in the 1980s things started getting better as she was discovered by a new generation of young jazz enthusiasts in London. One Sunday she dropped into Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud session at Dingwalls to see if what she'd heard about a revival of some of her classics was true. The DJ played 'Samba de Flora' and the place went mad: "I felt goose bumps because the whole floor, everybody, got up and danced like maniacs. I could not believe it," she told Jazz On CD magazine in April, 1995.
To describe Flora's utterly unique vocal style with reference to other singers is misleading. Most singers stick to the words of the song, or perhaps they scat somewhat, but while she interprets a lyric with more emotion than most can muster, Flora also experiments wordlessly, emitting a raw squeak like a dolphin screaming or laughing like she's sobbing without ever losing touch with the melody and always in rhythm. "I don't sing ballads", she told Pauline Melville in an interview for Straight No Chaser magazine, "When I sing lyrics, of course I mean them, but I like to free myself. Words can sometimes limit the imagination. Music speaks for itself."
In 1986 Flora collaborated once again with her husband on an album called 'The Magicians', for which she was nominated for a Grammy award. In 1992 she went one better by singing on two Grammy-winning albums: Planet Drum with the Grateful Dead's drummer, Mickey Hart (Best World Music Album) and The Dizzy Gillespie United Nations Orchestra (Best Jazz Album). It was Dizzy who introduced Flora to the religion of Baha'i, to which she has become committed. Flora has received two Grammy awards for Best Female Jazz Performance and was voted Downbeat magazine's Best Female Singer for four consecutive years.
The launch of Airto's Latin jazz band FOURTH WORLD, in 1993 with guitar hero JOSE NETO  and keys 'n' reeds maestro DART MEEK marked a new era in Flora's career. Safe in the supportive hands of an understanding record label, Flora set out to win over the next wave of listeners. Gigs at The Forum in London and collaborations with Giles Peterson and Patrick Forge led to Flora and Airto guesting on several Acid Jazz recordings, including the James Taylor Quartet's Supernatural Feeling and Urban Species' Listen, and Giles subsequently helped ANDREW MISSINGHAM to remix tracks from her first solo album for M.E.L.T. (then B&W Music), Speed Of Light.
Flora's receptiveness to new ideas, her openness, has also informed subsequent recordings, including her most recent album, The Flight and single, What You See (BW5073) which was given the remix treatment by Attica Blues and A Guy Called Gerald.