Queer Places:
Bar Brahma, Av. São João, 677 - Centro Histórico de São Paulo, São Paulo - SP, 01036-000, Brazil
Cemitério de Congonhas
São Paulo, Município de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Cauby Peixoto (10 February 1931 – 15 May 2016) was a Brazilian singer,[1] whose career lasted from the late 1940s until his death in 2016. He is known for his deep voice and extravagant mannerisms and hairstyles. He had a brief career in the United States in the 1950s, where he presented under the pseudonyms Ron Coby or Coby Dijon.
Cauby Peixoto was born in Niterói into a family of musicians. His father, known as Cadete, played the guitar, his mother mandolin, his brothers played trumpet and piano and his sister was a singer. Cauby's uncle, Romualdo Peixoto, introduced the piano into samba recordings.
Cauby began his artistic career in the late 1940s. He studied at a Colégio de Padres Salesianos in Niterói, where he even sang in the school choir and also in the choir of the church he attended. Cauby worked in a trade until he decided to participate in radio freshman programs, in the late 1940s, in Rio de Janeiro. As a teenager, Cauby was considered different, as he was vain and seductive (Little did he know that in 1954, he would be considered the most handsome man in Brazil, elected by an American magazine). In a family of musicians, Cauby started to have his first contacts, through records by his brother, Moacyr, who showed him songs by Sílvio Caldas and Orlando Silva. Listening to one of his brother's records, he heard the performance of Orlando Silva (who became Cauby's idol), and fell in love with the song "Rosa" (by Pixinguinha and Otávio de Souza). The radio was already mass media, and everyone liked to listen to it. Besides, his mother and sisters loved to sing.
Cauby recorded his first album in 1951, which was called "Saia Branca". At the time, because he was not very famous, he had little repercussion. In 1952, through his brother Moacyr, Cauby met Di Veras, a famous businessman, known for his great marketing strategies. He took Cauby to São Paulo, specifically to Rua da Rádio Nacional. Di Veras began working on Cauby's aesthetic. He demanded that Cauby dress well, because being from a humble family he was not used to it, but with the singers of the time, it was an obligation to be elegant. Changes in Cauby's look would become a constant. Cauby did not stop recording albums during the changes, and in 1955 he released his first hit in Brazil, Blue Gardênia, in a version that he brought from the United States in Portuguese. At the time, it was a hit in the voice of Nat King Cole, Cauby's idol. Di Veras worked with Cauby until 1958, when Cauby hit #5 on the US Top Albums Chart. Cauby was invited on a tour of the US by Cardinal Spellman in 1955. During the voyage on the ship, Cauby sang religious songs. Already in the USA, with the artistic name of Ron Coby, he recorded some LP's with the orchestra of Paul Weston, singing in English. Between 1955 and 1958, he traveled back and forth to the United States. In 1956, he appeared in the film Com Água na Boca singing his great hit, Conceição. At the time, he was quoted in Time and Life magazines as: The Brazilian Elvis Presley. In 1957, Cauby was the first Brazilian singer to record a rock song in Portuguese, called Rock and Roll, which was composed by Miguel Gustavo, also author of the marchinha "Pra Frente, Brasil".
Cauby lived in São Paulo with his fan, businesswoman and caregiver Nancy Lara, responsible for the schedule, costumes, sets, stage setup and repertoire. Cauby performed on Monday nights at Bar Brahma, a traditional temple of bohemian São Paulo, in operation since the 1940's, located on the most famous Brazilian corner (Av. Ipiranga with Av. São João, in São Paulo, Brazil ), a three-month season, with its success, led to a season that lasts more than a decade, with competitive tickets, both at Bar Brahma, as in his shows that he performed in Brazil, with his guitarist, friend and brother of Agnaldo Rayol, Ronaldo Rayol.
On May 28, 2015, his documentary was released in Brazil, (Cauby - It would start all over again) by Nelson Hoineff. The film has ninety minutes, and tells its entire trajectory. The film marked the reopening of Cine Odeon, Cauby talks about his sexuality and other topics. Throughout the ninety minutes of exhibition, the audience rests on three pillars: in addition to the idea of eternal beginnings, Cauby Peixoto's timeless interpretation model and the synergy between him and the audience, which transcends generations. An interesting fact is that the documentary was the most profitable and most successful of the year 2015.
Cauby Peixoto died on the night of May 15, 2016, aged 85, in São Paulo. The singer died around 23:50. He had been hospitalized for pneumonia since May 9 at the Hospital Sancta Maggiore, in Itaim Bibi, in the South Zone of São Paulo. The artist's last performance took place on May 3, 2016, at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, Cauby sang alongside singer Angela Maria with whom he was on a tour celebrating sixty years of his career.
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