Jacques Klein born 10 July 1930

Jacques Klein (10 July 1930 – 24 October 1982) was a Brazilian composer and pianist. 

Considered one of the ten greatest classical pianists of all time in Brazil, Jacques Klein almost abandoned concert music for good to dedicate himself to jazz. But, revered as one of the greatest of his time, whether in solo or accompanied recitals, his technical perfectionism, combined with great sensitivity, conquered audiences all over the world and a place in the pantheon of the great musicians of Brazil. 

Born to a Jewish family in Aracati, he grew up in the nearby city of Fortaleza, where he began to study piano at the Conservatorio Alberto Nepomuceno, which was founded by his father. At the beginning of the 1940s he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he studied with Liddy Mignone at the Conservatorio Brasileiro de Musica, where he himself began to teach in the 1950s. At the age of thirteen he temporarily left classical music and set up a jazz trio with his friends Dinarte Rodrigues (on guitar) and Breno Porto (on drums). The trio began to perform once a week on Radio Jornal do Brasil, starting in 1946. 

He moved to New York, at the suggestion of Guiomar Novaes, to take classes with Isidor Philipp, but he did not identify with the professor and returned to Brazil to dedicate himself to his diplomatic career. Six months later, in a fit of fury, he threw away all the competition paperwork, telling his mother, "I want to be a pianist!" He returned to New York to study with the American pianist William Kapell, on the recommendation of Aloysio de Alencar Pinto. 

Reportedly, at the time, during a jam session at the Cafe Society club, he played for the legendary jazz artist Art Tatum, when pianist Billy Taylor invited Jacques on stage. Klein performed the choro “Tico-Tico no Fubá”, by Zequinha de Abreu , and the jazz standard “How High The Moon”, causing a great impression, which was recorded in the local press. Legend has it that Tatum invited him to join his group. 

He studied in Viena with Bruno Seidlhofer and in 1953 he won first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition, which launched his international career. In 1954 Klein appeared with the London Philharmonic. In 1955 he was chosen as the best pianist of the year in London and received the Harriet Cohen Medal. He formed a duo with violinist Salvatore Accardo and performed with pianist Friedrich Gulda. 

                  Here’s “Nao Tem Solucao” from above album.

                    

He started to perform with numerous important orchestras, such as the Philharmonics of Berlin and London, the National of Paris, the Santa Cecília of Rome, New York, the Symphonies of Vienna, Hannover and Chicago, and the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 1956, he performed on two pianos with Friedrich Gulda at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, performing works by Mozart, Schubert, Camargo Guarnieri, Ravel and Brahms. 

His debut in the United States was in 1959 at Carnegie Hall, interpreting the “3rd Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” by Rachmaninoff, conducted by Eleazar de Carvalho, being acclaimed by critics, who sometimes compared him to Vladimir Horowitz and Arthur Rubinstein. In the 1960s, he was a juror for the 1961 and 1965 editions of the National Piano Competition of the Union of Musicians of Brazil. In 1964, he presented Villa-Lobos's Concerto No.5 and Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos (with pianist Glória Maria da Fonseca Costa) in the same night with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Henrique Morelenbaum. 

In 1970, on the occasion of Beethoven 's bicentenary celebrations , he performed the complete cycle of the 32 sonatas in London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Rio de Janeiro (Sala Cecília Meireles). He also had a great affinity for the works of Mozart , whose sonatas and piano concertos he often performed. From the 1970s, he was twice director of Sala Cecília Meireles and one of the directors of the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, he was part of the Trio Continental together with Cussy de Almeida (violin) and Peter Dauelsberg (cello), in addition to performing in several countries with the Italian violinist Salvatore Accardo. 

He taught at the school of music at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and at the University of Miami. He made a number of recordings of the Brazilian samba. His students include Egberto Gismonti, Clelia Iruzun, and Arnaldo Cohen. 

Jacques Klein died prematurely, aged 52, on October 24, 1982, in Rio de Janeiro, victimized by cancer. His last concert took place on September 27 of the same year, interpreting Haydn's “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D Major”, with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Fritz Dobbert’s blog & Institute of Brazilian Piano)