Flora Purim

Influenced by both traditional Brazilian singers and the improvisations of American jazz divas like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Flora Purim was one of the most adventurous singers of the 1970s. After meeting and marrying her husband, percussionist Airto Moreira, in their native Brazil, Purim moved with him to the U.S. in the late '60s. Though she worked with Stan Getz and pianist Duke Pearson before the decade ended, it wasn't until joining Chick Corea, Joe Farrell, Stanley Clarke, and Moreira in the original Return to Forever in 1972 that she became well known in the States. Purim showed considerable promise on Forever classics like "500 Miles High" and "Light As a Feather" and lived up to it when she went solo with 1973's Butterfly Dreams. Ranging from superb to passably decent, Purim's Milestone dates of the mid- to late '70s kept her quite visible in the jazz world. Purim's work grew erratic and uneven in the 1980s, and she wasn't recording as often (though she did provide one album for Virgin and three with Moreira for Concord's Crossover label). Purim didn't record very often in the early to mid-'90s either, but she continued to be highly regarded in Brazilian jazz circles.