Credited as the godfather of samba-funk and samba-soul, Salvador da Silva Filho (September 12, 1938), better known as Dom Salvador, is a Brazilian pianist, arranger, and composer. Hailing from Rio Claro, São Paulo, he grew up in a music-loving household and took an interest in percussion from an early age. When his teacher moved to a different city, Dom Salvador first tried his luck with wind instruments before settling on the piano. During his teenage years, he played with Mário Florim’s Orquesta Excelsior and entered the Carlos Gomes Conservatory to finish his piano studies in 1960. After graduating, he relocated to the city of São Paulo and became the pianist for several nightclubs such as Baiúca, Cave, and Lancaster, and then moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1963. There, he formed the Copa Trio with Dom Um Romão on drums and Miguel Gusmão on double bass, acting as the backing band for up-and-coming artists such as Jorge Ben, Marcos Valle, and Elis Regina. In 1965, Dom Salvador created the Rio65 Trio, which issued two albums and toured Europe with Edu Lobo, Rosinha de Valença, Silvia Telles, and Rubens Bassini. Towards the end of the decade, Dom Salvador stopped touring and mainly worked as a session musician. His seminal eponymous solo debut arrived in 1969 via CBS and was heavily informed by American soul and funk, two genres that Dom Salvador masterfully blended with MPB to great results. Throughout the 70s, he fronted Grupo Abolição, an influential all-black jazz funk outfit that released the politically-charged Som, Sangue e Raça in 1971, and then settled in New York in 1973. In the following years, Dom Salvador released a jazz album titled My Family (1976), participated in Harry Belafonte’s Turn the World Around (1977) as pianist and musical director, and released a handful of scattered LPs such as Rio Claro Suite (1984), Transition (1997), Dom Salvador Trio (2007). Subsequently, he revived Rio65 Trio’s original lineup for a one-time show in 2015, spawning the live album Live at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall, finally released in 2018.
