The Impeccable Dick Farney

Jazz pianist and singer Dick Farney (pronounced FAR-nay) had a big career in Brazil and recorded in the U.S. with bassist Slam Stewart and others, and yet he's barely known today. Farney's crooning voice was so smooth you'd think Bing Crosby had recorded pop records in Portuguese. Farney's jazz career began in the early 1940s and by the late 1940s he was in New York as a regular singer on Milton Berle's radio show on NBC. By the early 1950s, Farney had returned to Rio de Janeiro and shifted to pop with a jazz feel, continuing into the 1980s.

After his start as a singer in major Rio hotels and clubs, he was invited to the U.S. after meeting arranger Bill Hitchcock and lounge pianist Eddie Duchin at Rio's Hotel Copacabana. By the early 1960s, he was recording jazz-bossa albums and then more lavish and irresistible pop albums. Perhaps his best-known recording in the U.S. was Você in 1964 with Brazilian actress Norma Bengell. Farney died in 1987.

Here are clips and full albums that will introduce you to the ever-suave Farney, who had impeccable taste on the piano, as a vocalist, with orchestral arrangements and his entire polished presentation. If these recordings don't put you in a relaxed zone to start the week, nothing will:

Here's Farney singing Somebody Loves Me and playing piano backed by bassist Slam Stewart on a V-disc in 1947..



Here's Farney on Milton Berle's radio show in February 1948 singing But Beautiful...



Here's Farney back in Brazil in 1953 with Luiz Bonfá on guitar...



Here's the full Dick Farney Trio jazz album in 1956, with Farney on piano backed by Dinarte Rodrigues Filho on guitar and Eduardo Lincoln on bass...



Here's Farney with Brazilian actress Norma Bengell in 1964 singing Você ...



Here's Farney singing Meu Mundo e Voce in 1964...



Here's Farney on the complete Farney album in 1973...



Here's Farney on the complete Dick Farney album in 1975...



Here's Farney on the complete Noite album in 1981...



And here's Farney in the early 1970s...