Sylvia Telles

Who was Sylvia Telles?

Sylvia Telles was a Brazilian jazz samba and bossa nova singer of the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps one of the most highly spoken of singers of the time, Telles preceded the advent of bossa nova, and then began covering songs by such influential composers as Antonio Carlos Jobim, and worked with others such as Luiz Bonfá. She also did several tribute albums to Antonio Carlos Jobim. One of the most famous classic bossa nova songs was written for her by Jobim, its namesake her nickname - "Dindi". By the early 1960s, she had made her first trip to America, recording U.S.A. with Barney Kessel for Philips. Her husband, producer Aloysio de Oliveira, proved instrumental in her later signing to Odeon and Elenco, two labels where he worked. Telles had just recorded her second tribute to Jobim, 1966's The Music of Mr. Jobim, when she was killed in a car accident at the age of 32. Telles is the mother of singer and songwriter Claudia Telles, born August 26, 1957.