Oscar Castro-Neves - Oscar!

Oscar Castro-Neves, a Brazilian guitarist who was instrumental in the development of that country's bossa nova style, died in Los Angeles on Sept. 27. He was 73 and the cause was cancer. Castro-Neves had lived permanently in the United States since 1971.
Oscar Castro-Neves was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 15, 1940. He began playing guitar, specifically the Brazilian cavaquinho, a small Brazilian guitar, as a child and performed in local bands as a teen. He also learned piano but it was the guitar that brought him success, particularly after he became involved in formulating the emerging bossa nova sound, working with Jobim and others. While still living in Brazil, he recorded with major artists such as Vinicius de Moraes and Dorival Caymmi.
At 22, Castro-Neves performed at a bossa nova concert at Carnegie Hall and four years later he began working extensively in the States, eventually adding his guitar and vocals to recordings by Getz, Frank Sinatra, Elis Regina, Flora Purim, Joe Henderson, Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Stevie Wonder, Eliane Elias, João Gilberto, Lee Ritenour, Airto Moreira, Diane Schuur, Herbie Hancock, Ella Fitzgerald, Ottmar Liebert and others. He arranged music for Quincy Jones, Flora Purim, Laurindo Almeida, Gilberto and others.