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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Umsaco (talk | contribs) at 06:22, 15 July 2016 (My changes are because the original description of the artist, herein, does not reflects his real career in any way or form. He shouldn't be discriminated.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Mayuto Correa (born 9 March 1943) is a Brazilian percussionist, guitarist, and composer. He was born in São Gonçalo, Rio de Janeiro and began playing in local bands there from the age of 12. He later worked in Mexico with the Brazilian bossa nova group Tamba 4 before moving to the United States. He established himself as a musician in Los Angeles in the early 1970s where he also became the record producer for the Argentine group Arco Iris who had moved to the US and shifted from rock to jazz. (The above description of Mayuto Correa's career is not correct: it's vague, incomplete and, therefore, absurd. The following description of the artist is correct and substantiated by many sources already inserted here and deleted by this site. The artist is totally upset with the way he is being discriminated by this site):

A look back into Mayuto Correa’s career: his father, Simonides Correa was his big influence not in the arts but as model of versatility and master of many trades that varied from chef/restaurant owner to construction contractor and several other professions. Mayuto took that further, at the age of 16 he already had mastered percussion and was performing with Altamiro Carrilho, Waldir Azevedo at Radio Nacional , the main broadcasting station of the pre-television era. At the same time he had a show with a girl name Xuxu, the duo was regular at soccer clubs and schools, performing “Rusted Old Man.” That was not all he did then: He was also a paid soccer player from the age 8 and at 16 his father brought he and his brother, Agnaldo to club Flamengo and from there he went to Brazil’s National Team of under 17. His other passion was behavioral studies and by the age 16 he had written 62 notebooks on that topic. By the time he reached age 20 he had performed with stars such as Cauby Peixoto, Elza Soares, Maysa, Monsueto, Jorge Bejor, Jair Rodrigues, at age 24 he was the artistic director at PUC University.

His involvement with PUC University coincided with a period of restriction of expression imposed by the military dictatorship in Brazil, specially towards entertainment and university personnel; Mayuto was in both categories and in 1969 he was ready to leave Brazil but he had a contract to fulfill, he was the band leader and musical director of the show “Comigo Me Desavim” at Miguel Lemos Theater in Rio de Janeiro, starred by Maria Bethania. The show had a long run and he was counting the days until the end: four days after that he and his wife, Sonia, arrived in Mexico City. Other Brazilian artists had already self exiled at Mexico, Including the singer Leny Andrade, Composer/singer, Carlos Lyra, group Tamba Four, Joao Gilberto and Roberto Nascimento; Mayuto worked with Brazilian and Mexican artists including Mario Patron, Zito High and Jose Jose. In November of 1969 he arrived in Los Angeles for one week stay. He had arranged with Joao Donato to pick him up and take him to a hotel but he took him to his house, instead. What happened next became known as one of the quickest success stories of a foreigner in L.A.

Joao Donato introduced Mayuto to Bob Krasnow saing that he wanted Mayuto to be the conga player on his record (A Bad Donato) which was scheduled to a “monster session” the next day. Bob asked: how much you want to play? Mayuto said: $1.000.00 and work visa. Bob pointed to a door saying, “go there and give them your information.” The next day, Saturday, the “monster session” had no set time to end because whole recordings were starting and ending that day. The monsters arrived on time and they were the top names of the A 1 list of studio musicians of America: Emil Richards, Joe Porcaro, Jerry Steinholtz , Paulo Magalhaes, Larry Banker, Chuck Domanico, Oscar Castro Neves, Doum Romao, Mark Stevens, that was the rhythm section, including Mayuto on conga drums. He says: that the “groove” was so powerful that the coda of every song was very long because they couldn’t stop playing. At the end of the song “The Frog” everybody had their eyes closed and the sound was so intense that nobody heard the buzz from Hank Cicalo, the engineer: Tommy LiPuma had to storm the recording area and scream, “Stop…Stop… Later on that week, Mayuto, discovered that his pay for that session was many times more than the union scale which was $60.00 for 3 hours. He sent for his wife and they made L.A. their new home, she was 7 months pregnant of their only child, Eric.

That was still November of 1969. Leonard Feather asked Mayuto for his bio to be included in The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies, he became A1 studio musician overnight. His first manager was Anthony Newman, who also represented Cantinflas, Carmen Amaya National Ballet of Mexico, he saw Mayuto playing at club, gave him his highest compliment and said “I want to represent you.” Mr. Newman was a powerful lawyer, his office was a few yards from the immigration’s office, the next day he took Mayuto to the top floor, entered the director’s office, they hugged each other, he said “please give a green card to my friend here and his wife,” an assistant took care of that. Mayuto formed a band including some musicians he met at the “monster session,” with Joe Porcaro on drums, Chuck Domanico on bass, Joe Pass on guitar, Richard Thompson on piano, Don Menza on sax and flute and Frank Rosolino on trombone; The band had his name but he called that a “rolling band” because the musicians were so in demand that substitution happened all the time, turning his band a display of the best musicians in the country: John Pisano, Joe Roxano, Thurman Green, Ernie Watts, Endy Simpkins, Milcho Leviev, Mike Melvoin, Ndugo Chancler, Jake Hanna and many other great. Mayuto’s live performances as a soloist noticed by many and he turned into a strategic musician who was hired to bring higher energy into shows of several high profile American bands.

In early 1971, his dear friend and manager, Tony Newman, died. That was personally devastating to a client that was considered his son. Sam Russell who was already a close friend became Mayuto’s personal manager. There was no one more connected to musicians than Sam and he was liked by everyone. Even before having his own record Mayuto was featured with his band in jazz festivals and major jazz clubs. His live performances became known as high energy experience. He was seen by John Levy and got invited to become his client, John was a celebrity personal manager with a reputation of being the best in the business, San Russell, as Mayuto’s best friend encouraged him to accept John’s offer. That was a perfect match because John Levy primary intention was to add Mayuto’s high energy performance to acts of artists he represented: Mayuto performed, regularly with Cannonball Adderley, Freddy Hubbard, Billy Paul, The Jazz Crusaders and he was well paid by John Levy, directly. That friendship never ended, even after John retired he was considered a symbolic manager to Mayuto, who called John once in a while and always hear from him “what is the best conga player in the world needing now?” One day in 2012, after returning from abroad, Mayuto’s call was answered by Mrs. Levy who said he had died. To Mayuto he’s irreplaceable as manager and friend.

Mayuto has shared his talent with more stars than he can list here and most of them became his friend. His uncompromising integrity attracted most but also shocked some of them. That happened to his great friend and entertainment Lawyer, Steven Sobo who represented Mayuto in a big production deal involving him as producer, director and artist. The other side was the owner of Shelter Record, Denny Cordell who had completely agreed with Mayuto’s condition of not use in any of his songs or arrangements the usual exaggerated sound distortions of dance music. That was a practice that Mayuto was against during the 1970s. Everything looked perfect, Cordell had promised that in less than 1 year Mayuto would have more than one million dollars in his bank account, in the med seventies there weren’t many million dollar deals in music business. To commemorate the deal and the announcement of the Dance Ring at La Cienega Boulevard a music presentation happened for limited guest and relatives of musicians and executive staff. Denny Cordell partner who flew from New York on his privet plane arrived at Studio Instrumental Rental with his entourage. He had an intriguing look, he was young but looked very old, he walked with a cane. He was listening to the music, moving his body on the rhythm and smiling. In the end he said, “I loved everything… Mayuto can you, please, add one Disco song to the repertoire?” Mayuto, politely, said no. Lawyers of both parties were there. Mayuto had to go out of town the next morning, he instructed Steven Sobo to cancel the deal if Cordell partner insisted on adding a Disco song. That is what happened and when Mayuto returned to town Steven Sobo picked him up from the airport and said “I’m not your Lawyer anymore, I’m now personal injury lawyer, you turn more deals down than you sign them.” That was in 1982 and the last time Mayuto saw Steven. Mayuto recently checked, he is a successful personal injury lawyer in west Los Angeles.

Mayuto knows that the persons he has conflict with also have integrity, but he’s an expert on behavior, specializing on human degeneration. He knows how far from correct is human behavior. He is primarily a behavioral professor having for long time parallel careers teaching, writing and helping people with their social and personal conflicts. Sometimes his standard of integrity is too severe for the entertainment industry, but for him it’s just natural. His friend, Harry Belafonte, was also affected by Mayuto’s level of integrity for not fulfilling a promise made before they worked together. In Mayuto’s view Harry is one of the most high integrity persons he knowns and a man of impeccable perfectionism. But when Harry insisted with Mayuto to join his show in 1974 the request was politely turned down because Mayuto was on the top of his prime career in America and there was no offer that could take Mayuto out of his work pattern: he was charging $1.000.00 per hour to do any work and he was working a lot. Harry offered his top money and even that was not enough. But after several calls from Harry Mayuto’s admiration towards him helped. He said that he would travel with him but he would have to promise to help the poor composers of Rio de Janeiro who lived in the slams while their songs are being robbed by dishonest entertainers who publish that music under their own names. Mayuto asked Harry to help him to create a studio in Rio to produce and publish that music for the poor composers. Harry agreed to do that.

Harry booked Mayuto at the Hilton in Manhattan and rehearsals started for a world tour. Mayuto and Harry were connected from both sides, the level of mutual admiration was high, Harry called Mayuto his advisor and brother and spontaneously said “I will connect you with Sidney (Poitier) and other film producers where you can produce your own films and I will be with you always.” Mayuto knew that he meant that and he knew that he had the heart and the power to do all that. The tour was great, Harris popularity was impressive, In Hamilton, Canada, they performed at Hamilton Theater with 6.000 seats, it was sold out and there were 66.000 requests for unavailable tickets. During the show Harry was Specially nice, he featured Mayuto with special solos and called him his music advisor on stage; daily, he, his wife and Mayuto had breakfast, and dinner together. In Ottawa something unusual happened: the Court of England was in the audience and after the show Harry sent an assistant to Mayuto’s dressing room to bring him so they could go to greed the Royalties. Politely, Mayuto said no because when the Queen visited Brazil she demanded that the black Brazilian workers straightened their hairs before boarding her ship. Harry sent two other members of his staff to convince Mayuto to go, he refused. That incident was never mentioned thereafter.

One month later Harry had not yet mentioned anything regarding plan to create studio in Rio. Mayuto called a truck rental packed his instruments and sent a message to Harry saying that he was going back to L.A., that was on Saturday evening, between two shows. The messenger came back with message for me to see Harry. He was shocked with Mayuto’s decision and talked only about what that was going to do to the show. On the first pause of his talking Mayuto said: I’m living now. Harry grabbed the tower heater by the cord, waved it over his head like fan, braking dozens lights and Mayuto calmly looked at from where he was at the door, broken glass flying everywhere; when he stopped Mayuto just said goodbye and left – drove the truck to the airport and returned to L. A. When Mayuto talks about artists he admires for their talent and integrity, Harry Belafonte is first on his list.

That is why he prefers to reveal the conflicts and challenges he faces throughout his career. That continues with his collaboration with friend Bola Sete. That was a perfect mix, not only musically but personally; both shared mutual admiration and an exuberant talent as soloists. Their first experience together was a tour including several concerts at Mexico Jazz Festival in 1971 that also featured Herb Mann, Stan Getz, Hermeto Pascoal, Gabor Szabo and several other artists. During the concert in Guadalajara Mayuto noticed a low energy projected by Bola Sete’s band in contrast to every other band and that didn’t work with the event because Bola Sete’s band was billed as the headliner and they were the last act to perform. When it came to Mexico City’s Arena Mayuto talked to the backup trio in the dressing room saying that the energy level had to be much higher than the one at the previous concert. They responded by saying that the whole plan was to be a “low key” group. That was the end of the conversation but on stage, after a sequence of bands performing at their highest energy, including Herb Mann’s band, perhaps, in their best performance, ever. When Bola Sete’s band entered the stage it had the atmosphere of a real arena. Mayuto noticed the expectation of that huge audience and he performed in a way that the energy of the band came from him: he took a huge solo on congas and played many other percussion instruments, he felt that he was charged by a rare energy that is more suitable to survival and that is what happened with help by a loud and unstoppable roar coming from the whole arena which gave him a long standing ovation; he then played the tambourine and he threw it up in the air and, with a huge punch tore the skin of it and it turned into a ring around his arm, then he grabbed the cuica, made all kind of sounds with that and he tore the skin of that too then he stopped all that with a loud clamor and bowed to the audience which was standing, clapping and roaring for a long time already. He exited to back stage, an open area filled with benches, he dropped his body on one bench, closed his eyes, he was drenched from sweat; suddenly, someone kissed his face, he opened his eyes: that was Gabor Szabo, who he had never met. Gabor said, “if you ever want to play in my band just call me” and gave him a card.

In the following week Bola Sete’s band performed at The Light House and on the first night, before the show, Bola Sete’s wife and manager approached Mayuto and said “Mayuto you are a great player, but, please, when you play with Bola do it with less intensity to avoid diminishing his performance.” Mayuto, politely, said “thank you for letting me know” and when that night was over he said to Bola Sete “it’s been a pleasure working with you but I’m giving you one week notice to find another percussionist” Bola Sete was surprised and asked why, but Mayuto just said that he was going to know why; he did and insisted with Mayuto to stay with the band and Mayuto said, “I would never be comfortable.” On their last night Mayuto left. They never saw each other again. Two weeks later he called Gabor Szabo who was surprised and happy by the call and said, “are you willing to play with me?” Mayuto said, yes. Gabor’s spontaneity came quickly: “are you willing to go out of town with me tonight? That was Friday morning – Mayuto said, yes. Gabor said that he was going to call right back and he did, minutes later, saying that he cancelled the vibraphone player to include Mayuto on the band. Mayuto was sorry about the other musician, but it was too late to mention. That afternoon they boarded a privet plane and headed to El Matador in San Francisco. Gabor and Mayuto became best friends, inseparable, based on a pure love and a mutual admiration. Alicia, Gabor’s beautiful wife was the most pleasant person to be around. At El Matador, without rehearsal, the signature sound of gipsy guitar mixed with fingertip percussion was created in a flash and that became a mark of two talents in a perfect blend. On Saturday, after the night’s last show, Mayuto was ready to leave and he was approached by the super star, Carlos Santana, who was an admirer and friend of Gabor but he and Mayuto had never met before. He asked, “Mayuto, what is your plan for right now?” Mayuto said that he was going to the Marriott Hotel. Carlos said, “Can I take you somewhere right now?” It was 3:00 AM, Mayuto said yes. Carlos said, let’s go and they left. That trip is described by Mayuto as a silent journey of two strangers in the night weaving through dark roads of a paradise. That took thirty minutes or so and there was no one car going in any direction, then suddenly many cars appeared and they were going to the same place Carlos was going and they entered the same gate.

That was when Mayuto broke his silence and asked, “what is going on?” Carlos said ”I called the guys of the band and asked them to come over to play with you.” Mayuto says that thanks God he has a strong heart because what he felt at that moment humbled him so intensely that he had to compose himself to meet the guys. Obviously Carlos and Mayuto became very good friends, but that morning, Mayuto says, he encountered someone with the most beautiful heart on earth. To Mayuto Carlos is a symbol of humility and great heart. His band was there and they jammed without stopping for the entire day, food was brought in, Carlos liked some of Mayuto’s songs, specially “Oasis” which blended with the landscape around that mansion at Mill Valley.

References

1. Feather, Leonard (ed.) (1999). "Correa, Mayuto (Mailto)". The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199729077
2. Down Beat (1982). Volume 49, p. 54
3. Feather, Leonard (24 July 1977). "Mayuto Blows the Whistle on Big Bucks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 October 2013,

External links

• Mayuto Correa on AllMusic
• Mayuto Correa biography on All About Jazz
• Biography at La Sierra University

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