Luiz Bonfá

Before bossa nova took the world by storm in the 1960s, the reigning sound of Brazil was the samba. Guitarist Luiz Bonfa was one of the most well-known Brazilian samba-cancao composers and performers of the 1950s, known for his complex, lively fingerpicking style and soulful compositions. His contributions to the BLACK ORPHEUS soundtrack--particularly "Manha de Carnaval," which has since become a jazz standard--elevated him to fame in 1959, and he continued to enjoy the respect of peers and audiences well into the '90s. Bonfa died in Brazil in 2001.