Carlos José born 22 September 1934

Carlos José Ramos dos Santos (September 22, 1934 – May 9, 2020), better known as simply Carlos José, was a Brazilian singer-songwriter of the genre seresta.

Carlos José was born in São Paulo, Brazil as Carlos José Ramos dos Santos. He was the brother of guitarist Luis Cláudio Ramos, who was conductor and arranger of Chico Buarque's band for many years, Att the age of five, his family moved to the city of Rio de Janeiro where he has lived until his death.

A student at Santo Inácio and Andrews colleges and, later, at the Faculty of Law, he was always connected to amateur musical groups. In 1947, he was ranked 1st in the freshman program "Papel carbon", presented by Renato Murce on Rádio Nacional (RJ). He joined the Faculty of Law, where he organized a theater and music group, which revealed, among others, Geraldo Vandré and Silvinha Telles. During 1951 he sang at Rádio Globo, then moved to Rádio Roquete Pinto, where he sang American songs.

Although he practised law for a few years he abandoned his career to dedicate himself to music. In 1957, the world lost a lawyer and won a singer when Carlos José was voted one of the musical revelations of that year after appearing on a TV program presented by Flávio Cavalcanti. He had signed for Polydor and recorded two recent songs, It was the night (Antonio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça, 1956) and Listen (Maysa, 1957), then the career of the singer took off throughout the 1960s, a decade in which the full-bodied bass voice of the interpreter came to be associated with serestas.

                       Here’s “Ouça” (Listen) from above LP

                     

Passing through several record companies, Carlos José recorded albums and singles with annual regularity from 1958 to 1975. In 1960, the singer gave voice to the first great success of his career, the samba-song Esmeralda (Fernando Barreto and Filadelfo Nunes), released by Carlos José on 78 RPM disk.

On his first LP in 1958, “Revelation” for the Polydor label, more than half of the repertoire is composed of bossa nova compositions, although the way of singing has not changed. The first song he recorded outside of this style was Esmeralda, guarânia by Filadelfo Nunes and Fernando Barreto, in 1960. From then on he started recording many popular boleros and guarânias, with songs by Vinicius de Moraes, Billy Blanco, Tito Madi, composers who modernized Brazilian music. His soft and velvety voice fitted well in the new type of song that started to be done in Brazil, with more elaborate harmonies, with lyrics of a restrained romanticism.

Carlos José is generally associated with romantic music, which in Brazil has become synonymous with brega, and seresta, the latter entered his career because of the 1966 album Uma Noite de Seresta, with a repertoire of songs from the 1930s. and 40, the LP sold so much that it became a series, and forever linked the singer's name to what was conventionally called seresta music.

The Serestas series extended to six volumes, the last of which was released in 1971. Carlos José, like all of his generation, was displaced amid the sudden changes suffered by the music market, but he continued to record regularly throughout the 1970s. From the 80s, he took a long break, would return to recording sparingly in the 90s.Throughout his career, he performed on stages across Brazil, in addition to having performed in Portugal, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Ecuador

In 2014 the singer had returned to the studios after a long period away from the musical environment. He recorded the album “Musa das songs”, with his brother Luiz Cláudio Ramos, guitarist and arranger. The work brings together re-recordings of all the greatest successes of the interpreter and composer's career, such as “Doralice” and “Marina” (both by Dorival Caymmi), “Celina” (by Carlos José himself) and “Maria” (by Ary Barroso and Luis Peixoto).  The repertoire is all songs with women's names by title.

On May 9, 2020, José died due to complications brought on by COVID-19.He was admitted to the São Francisco Hospital in Providência de Deus, in Tijuca, in the North Zone of Rio, with respiratory problems resulting from the disease. At the time of his death, José was married to Vera Goulart. who was also hospitalized.

José also had two children from his previous marriage to journalist Maria D'Ajuda

(Edited from Wikipedia and various Google translations from JC Journal Brazil, musicamagia & G1 Globo)