1931

Born from a family of musicians, his uncle Nonô being a great pianist and cousin Ciro Monteiro an expert at syncopated samba. Cauby worked as a sales person until 1949, when he began participating in radio shows for newcomers in Rio. In 1951 he made his first solo album. He was working as a crooner in São Paulo nightclubs, specialized in singing in English, when his future manager and mentor, Di Veras, spotted him. Veras enabled Cauby to record via Columbia and his first major hit came with "Blue Gardenia", a Brazilian version of Nat King Cole’s interpretation. In little time, Cauby was turned into an idol, always on the radio, but mostly because of the marketing strategy involved, which involved the choice of the repertoire, clothing and an attitude carefully crafted by his manager. His trademark song is "Conceição" (Jair Amorim/ Dunga), first recorded in 1956. During the 50s and 60s he toured Brazil and the US, where he released a number of tracks under the pseudonym Ron Coby and lent his voice to music scores for movies. He also appeared on "Time" and "Life" magazines as "The Brazilian Elvis Presley". In 1964, Cauby opened up the nightclub Drink, with his brothers Moacyr (pianist), Araken (trumpeter) and sister Andyara (vocalist), which lasted four years and where he recorded an LP with singer Leny Eversong. Cauby went on playing nightclub gigs while experimenting a little media freezer. Success kicked back in in 1980, with songs like "Bastidores" (Chico Buarque) and "Loucura" (Joanna/ Sarah Benchimol), from the album "Cauby! Cauby!", a celebration for his (then) 25-year career. That album promoted his comeback to big, prestigious theaters. With singer Ângela Maria, he made two awarded albums. In 1995, he released the CD "Cauby Canta Sinatra", featuring Sinatra songs and big Brazilian music names, like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and Zizi Possi, besides Dionne Warwick. In 1999 he released "Cauby Canta as Mulheres", featuring only songs for or about women, such as "Izabella" (Billy Blanco) and "Lígia" (Tom Jobim). Hit list: "Blue gardenia" (B. Russel/ L. Lee/ Version by Antonio Carlos), "A Pérola e o Rubi" (The Ruby and the Pearl) (Jay Livingston/ R. Evans/ Version: Haroldo Barbosa), "Molambo" (Jayme Florence/ Augusto Mesquita), "Nono Mandamento" (René Bittencourt/ Raul Sampaio), "Tarde Fria" (Angelo Apolônio/ Henrique Lobo), "Ninguém é de Ninguém" (Umberto Silva/ Toso Gomes; Luiz Mergulhão), "Bastidores" (Chico Buarque), "Theme From New York, New York" (John Kander/ Fred Ebb)