JamelaoThe Brazilian musician Jamelao, who has died aged 95, was one of the most respected samba singers of the 20th century, a giant of Brazilian music renowned for his booming voice and legendary bad moods.
Jose Bispo Clementino dos Santos was born into a poor family in Sao Cristovao, a northern district of Rio de Janeiro. As a young man he worked as a shoeshiner, a paper delivery boy and later in a clothing factory. "I thought I would always be a factory worker," he recalled years later. That was not to be.
In the 1930s he began taking to the stage in dance halls in north Rio, and word about his rich, powerful voice quickly spread. According to legend, it was at one of these halls that his nickname was first uttered. Unsure of the singer's name, one nightclub host reputedly introduced the evening's attraction as "Jamelao" - a dark, sweet-tasting fruit and a reference to the singer's dark skin. The name stuck.
Jamelao's career took off in 1947 when he won a singing competition in Rio, and by 1949 he had become the main singer of the city's most famous samba school, Mangueira. In 1952 he went on tour to France as the official crooner of Brazil's Tabajara orchestra.
Over a recording career spanning nearly 70 years, Jamelao lent his voice to tracks by some of Brazil's best-loved composers, among them Cartola, Ze Keti, Billy Blanco and Ary Barroso. But he was best known for a style of music known in Brazil as dor de cotovelo, literally "elbow pain" - self-indulgent laments about jealousy, betrayal, lost love and depression. Jamelao himself preferred to describe his style as romantic samba. Whatever the truth, the public loved it.
He became the preferred interpreter for the southern composer Lupicinio Rodrigues, and a string of hit albums made him a household name across the country. Between 1952 and 2005 he was a regular fixture on the carnival float of Mangueira, before ill-health forced him to scale back his performances. In 1999 he was voted the samba interpreter of the century, while in 2005 he even put in an appearance on the catwalk at Sao Paulo fashion week, dressed in his trademark white suit and panama hat and using a walking stick.
Jamelao was also known for his sharp tongue and short temper. He once famously rebuked an over-excited fan who tried to kiss him after a show with the line: "No! How do I know where your mouth has been?" On another occasion he is said to have fallen asleep during a ceremony in Brazil's presidential palace, where the then-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso had decorated him.
Jamelao hated giving interviews and frequently ended them when he did not like the line of questioning. He was also suspicious of record company executives, who he believed often discriminated against Brazil's black musicians. "[ Black people] aren't allowed to be stars. Stars have to be white," he once said sarcastically in an interview, adding: "I don't shout about this because I know that the people who belittle me today will love me tomorrow."
He was right. Following his death, Rio's governor declared three days of mourning and tributes poured in from across the country.
His body was paraded through Rio's sambadrome on the back of a fire engine and he was buried to the sound of one of his most famous recordings, a tribute to the samba school to which he had devoted so much of his life.
The Brazilian composer and writer Chico Buarque was among those who paid tribute: "My friend Jamelao was an immense singer and the best grump in Brazil." His wife, Delice Ferreira, a daughter and two grandchildren, survive him.
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Jose Bispo Clementino dos Santos (Jamelao): born May 12th, 1913; died June 14th 2008