R.I.P.: Alberto Luiz Farah

(born February 12, 1948, Niterói, RJ, Brazil;
died October 27, 2009, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil)

The first time I became acquainted with Alberto Farah's talent was through a Victor Assis Brasil album recorded live on September 2, 1974, at the "Teatro da Galeria" in Rio de Janeiro. Victor's quintet at that time was formed by Farah (playing Fender Rhodes on this concert), Paulo Russo (then on electric bass), Lula Nascimento (drums) and Marcio Montarroyos (trumpet). Besides a haunting version of Leonard Bernstein's "Somewhere," it features three excellent tunes by Victor: "Pro Zeca," "Puzzle" and "Waving". The original LP, with liner notes by Elis Regina, came out on Magic Music, a subsidiary label of CID Records. It was later reissued on CD with a terrible cover art.

Alberto Farah by himself, from his bio on MySpace.
http://www.myspace.com/promusico

"I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in February 1948. At 7 years old I've started my music studies, taking music theory and violin lessons. Some years later I've also started my piano studies in the Governamental school "Instituto Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro". I've had a classical music formation and after some years playing violin and piano in concerts,I ingressed at the Pro-arte School to study contemporary classical composition with Professor Guerra Peixe, brilliant Brazilian composer and master. After some time I was seduced by popular music and jazz.
I've joined the Victor Assis Brazil band ,and participated in a fabulous album with that band in 1972.Victor died shortly after. Since then I've been playing with most of outstanding brazilian musicans as Paulo Moura,Paulo Russo,Carlos Malta , Marcio Montarroyos and so many others. I've also started with cd production and arranging for many brazilian artists as Elza Soares,Cecília Leite,Bruno Batista,Marcio Montserrat and others as well as composing many sound tracks for television in Brazil.
My passion in playing my piano and composing. I'm an active professional musician and producer in Rio de Janeiro. I perform very often with musician and singers locally. I have written many musical pieces for orchestra and piano(Classical). At present I've formed togetherwith Trumpeter/Producer Mike Ryan a new band called "Rio Fusion Orchestra", and produce various soundtracks for media companies in Brazil and abroad."
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Press-Release (in Portuguese) from Farah's profile on MySpace:
"Alberto Luiz Farah - Músico, Pianista e Produtor musical. Nascido em Niterói,RJ em 12 de fevereiro de 1948, iniciou seu estudos musicais aos 7 anos de idade como violinista e pianista. Cursou Teoria Musical, Harmonia, Contraponto e Fuga no Instituto Villa- Lobos(RJ) posteriormente completou os cursos de Composição e Orquestração da “ProArte”(RJ) com o maestro Guerra Peixe. Após ter trabalhado com a música erudita realizando vários concertos(Piano) com Sinfônicas locais ingressou também na música popular em 1972 participando como pianista do Quinteto do saxofonista Victor Assis Brasil em concertos e gravação de discos no Brasil.Daí trabalhou em vários grupos de baile e Conjuntos instrumentais no pais e exterior.Realizou vários trabalhos como músico e ptrodutor de discos de vários artistas como,Paulo Moura,Peri Ribeiro,Leni de Adrade,Elza Soares,Eliana Pittman,Tito Madi, Lennie Dale,Danilo Caymmi,Rosa Maria,Roberto Menescal,Baby Consuelo entre outros.Também atuou em varias peças teatrais destacando-se sua participação na peca “Brasileiro,profissão esperança" com Bibi Ferreira e Gracindo Jr no Rio de Janeiro, e caravanas do projeto Pixinguinha no país. Como pianista solista trabalhou em varias temporadas no Hotel Sheraton São Conrado, Hotel Sofitel Copacabana, Copacabana Palace, Hotel Marriot e outros no Rio de Janeiro. Tambem trabalhou como solista no Antonino’s (2 anos) e vários bares na cidade. Atualmente trabalha como pianista e produtor de Cd’s de varios artista jovens como Cecília Leite, Bruno Batista, Bheto Borges, Camila Brunatti e outros."