FLORA PURIM

Flora Purim was born March 6th of 1942 in Rio de Janeiro.

She was raised in a musical family, and as a child she
played both piano and guitar before she began to sing.
She was one of the most adventurous singers of the 1970s,
influenced by both traditional Brazilian singers and the
improvisations of American jazz divas like Ella Fitzgerald
and Sarah Vaughan. She has recorded and performed with
numerous artists, including Dizzy Gillespie, Gil Evans, Stan
Getz, George Duke, Santana and Jaco Pastorius.

In the late ‘60s Purim met and married percussionist Airto Moreira, and they decided to
move to the New York. Though she worked with Stan Getz and pianist Duke Pearson
before the decade ended, it wasn't until joining Chick Corea, Joe Farrell, Stanley Clarke,
and Moreira in the albums Return to Forever and Light as a Feather in 1972 that she
became well known in the States. The following year she recorded her first solo album
titled Butterfly Dreams. It was very well received, and she was chosen by the Down Beat
reader’s poll as one of the top five jazz singers.
In 1974 Purim was arrested and briefly incarcerated for cocaine possession, but that
didn’t stop her growth as a musician, since she released several albums for the
Milestone label during those years. Purim's work kept rising in the decade of the ‘80s
and ‘90s, even though she wasn't recording as often. She toured with Dizzy Gillespie’s
United Nation Orchestra, culminating with Gillespie’s Grammy Award-winning album
Live at the Royal Festival Hall, released in 1990. Right after that, she sang on the Grammy
Award-winning album Planet Drum by Mickey Hart, the former Grateful Dead drummer.
Later in the ‘90s Purim released her own album and world tour, Speed of Light, with
contributions of Billy Cobham, Freddie Ravel, George Duke, David Zeiher, Walfredo
Reyes Jr., Alphonso Johnson, Changuito, Freddie Santiago, and Giovanni Hidalgo.
Flora continues to be highly regarded in jazz circles around the world.

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I chose to write my paper about Flora because I discovered her music just a few months
ago and I wanted to learn more about her story and her way of singing. She made a big
impact on me when I heard her incredible range and originality of her improvisations.
I watched an interview from 1993 in which I learned that her vocal range originally
covered about three octaves, but it gradually increased to six. When I researched a bit
more, I found out it was thanks to the guidance of Hermeto Pascoal, incredible Brazilian
multi-instrumentalist, who taught and mentored her. This fact was amazing to me, since
I’ve been following Hermeto’s music for a long time.
Flora was a shy person in the beginning of her career, and I could say I identify myself
with her personality. It required a lot of time for her to feel comfortable with her singing,
as well as support from her friends and family. The one who really took her fear out and
encouraged her the most was also Hermeto.

There is something unique on her singing, and that is the use of the voice for sounds. I
find her different from the majority of the singers, since she has the courage to
experiment with rough or ‘not clean’ sounds, which she incorporates them in her
performances, recordings and interpretations.
She explains in another interview how she used to walk around Central Park with her
partner Airto Moreira late at night, and stop to hear every sound around the park. They
would listen to the trash trucks, the squirrels, a person walking… and they would get
inspired and feel all of that as music. When you hear her, you hear an instrument.

It also caused me interest and admiration how much she was involved and knew about
the historic heritage, values, traditions and cultures from around Latin-America. She
would know multiple chants from Cuba, Brazil or Colombia and would tell you the
meaning, the history and interpretation of them. She also knew about radical protest
songs in defiance of the repressive regime of the time.
After discovering her music, my whole concept of what music is has changed, and makes
me look forward to discover more of her music.

Mar Vilaseca