Carlos Lyra, composer who brought finesse to Bossa Nova, dies at the age of 90

Carlos Lyra, a Brazilian composer, singer and guitarist whose cool, meticulous melodies helped give structure and power to bossa nova, the samba-like jazz style that became a global phenomenon in the early 1960s, died on December 16 in Rio de Janeiro. He was 90.

His daughter, the singer Kay Lyra, said the cause of death, in a hospital, was sepsis.

Alongside Antônio Carlos Jobim, Mr Lyra was widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of bossa nova. Mr Jobim once called him ‘a great melodist, harmonist, king of rhythm, syncopation, swing’ and ‘singular, without equal’.

Mr. Lyra was part of a loose circle of musicians who in the 1950s sought ways to combine the traditional samba sounds of Brazil with American jazz and European classical influences. They often met at the Plaza Hotel in Rio, not far from Copacabana Beach, to talk about music and explore ideas.

One of those musicians, the singer and guitarist João Gilberto, recorded three of Mr. Lyra on: “Maria Ninguém” (“Maria Nobody”), “Lobo Bobo” (“Foolish Wolf”) and “Saudade Fêz um Samba” (“Saudade Made a Samba”) – on his “Chega de Saudade” (1959) , which is often called the first bossa nova album. Mr. Lyra released his own first album a year later, simply titled “Carlos Lyra: Bossa Nova. ”

Inspired by the West Coast jazz of Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan and others, Mr. Lyra brings a relaxed sophistication to his work, as well as an exacting standard for musical precision.

“He threw away a lot of songs,” his daughter said. “He only kept the good ones, he told me.”

He often wrote with a lyricist – originally Ronaldo Bôscoli and then, from the early 1960s, Vinícius de Moraes, who wrote the original Portuguese lyrics for ‘The Girl From Ipanema’, perhaps the most famous bossa nova song.

Mr. Lyra joined Mr. Gilberto, Mr. Jobim, Sérgio Mendes and other Brazilian artists in the famous 1962 performance at Carnegie Hall in New York who helped introduce bossa nova to American audiences. Jazz artists such as Miles Davis and Erroll Garner were in the audience, as were record executives, and several artists (though not Mr. Lyra) later signed contracts with American labels.

Many of the leading figures of the Bossa Nova were either only writers or only artists; Mr. Lyra was one of the few who was both. Glowing charismatic on stage, with a rich baritone voice, he conquered audiences throughout Brazil and, in the mid-1960s, the United States, when he toured for two years with saxophonist Stan Getz, the foremost American exponent of bossa nova.

Mr. Lyra also differed in his politics from his fellow bossa nova musicians. Most were apolitical or leaned right; Mr. Lyra was an outspoken leftist who joined the Communist Party and helped found the People’s Center for Culture, a gathering place in Rio de Janeiro for progressive students and artists.

He wrote songs (sometimes with his own lyrics, sometimes in collaboration with Mr. de Moraes) that had a social and political slant, although his messages became increasingly coded after the Brazilian government was overthrown in a military coup in 1964. Nevertheless, his politics led him to choose exile twice.

“I consider myself a political proletariat,” he told The New York Times in 2015. “I consider myself economically bourgeois. And artistically I consider myself an aristocrat.”

Carlos Eduardo Lyra Barbosa was born on May 11, 1933 in Rio de Janeiro. His father, José Domingos Barbosa, was an officer in the Brazilian Navy. His mother, Helena (Lyra) Barbosa, was a housewife.

Carlinhos (people called him by that name all his life, the diminutive form of Carlos) was a musically precocious child. His family was full of amateur artists and musicians, including his mother, who played the music of Debussy and other Impressionist composers on the piano.

He studied classical guitar with Moacir Santos, an influential composer and music teacher, and began writing songs in his teens. In 1955, singer Sylvia Telles recorded his ‘Menina’.

That early success brought him into contact with other young artists, such as Mr. Gilberto, Mr. Jobim, the singer Nara Leão and the composer Roberto Menescal, all of whom played a central role in the formation of bossa nova.

Mr. Lyra left Brazil after the 1964 coup. When he got off the road after his long tour with Mr. Getz, he settled in Mexico City, where he joined many other self-exiled Brazilian artists.

There he met and married Katherine Riddell, an actress known in Brazil by the stage name Kate Lyra. They later divorced.

Together with his daughter, Mr. Lyra is survived by a second wife, Magda Pereira Botafogo; his sister, Maria Helena Lyra Fialho; and his brother, Sérgio.

Mr. Lyra returned to Brazil in the early 1970s. But because he still found the right-wing dictatorship unpalatable, he went into exile again in 1974, this time to Los Angeles. There he underwent primal scream therapy under Arthur Janov and befriended another famous participant, John Lennon.

Two years later he returned to Brazil for good and settled in Rio de Janeiro. By then, the world had moved on and many of the bossa nova musicians left in the country had reached an agreement with the military government, which in turn promoted their careers – a game Mr Lyra refused to play.

But in the end, he too was hailed as a national treasure. Among the many celebrations surrounding his 90th birthday was the release of the album “Afeto: Homenagem Carlos Lyra (90 Anos)” or “Affection: Homage to Carlos Lyra (90 Years)”, with his songs performed by some of the most important Brazilian musicians . , including Gilberto Gil, Joyce Moreno and Mônica Salmaso.