From his 1972 album “Prelude”
“Also Sprach Zarathustra” (Originally composed by Richard Strauss, arranged and adapted by Eumir Deodato)
Eumir Deodato (full name Eumir Deodato de Almeida, 22 June 1943, Rio de Janeiro) is a Brazilian keyboardist, record producer and arranger, primarily based in the jazz realm but who historically has been known for eclectic melding of big band and combo jazz with varied elements of rock/pop, R&B/funk, Brazilian/Latin, and symphonic or orchestral music. His successes as an original artist (keyboards) occurred mainly in the 1970s. Since then, he has produced or arranged music in more than 500 albums for acts ranging from Kool and the Gang to Björk, Christophe and k.d. lang. His daughter, Kennya Deodato, is married to American actor Stephen Baldwin.
Personnel on the album:
Eumir Deodato – piano, electric piano
Ron Carter – electric bass (solo on “Baubles, Bangles and Beads”), bass
Stanley Clarke – electric bass (solo on “Also Sprach Zarathustra”)
Billy Cobham – drums
John Tropea – electric guitar (solo on “Also Sprach Zarathustra”, “Baubles, Bangles and Beads”, “September 13”)
Jay Berliner – guitar (solo on “Spirit of Summer”)
Airto Moreira – percussion
Ray Barretto – congas
Hubert Laws – flute (solo on “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”)
Plus Strings & Horns
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (German: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen) is a philosophical novel by German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, composed in four parts between 1883 and 1885. Much of the work deals with ideas such as the “eternal recurrence of the same”, the parable on the “death of God”, and the “prophecy” of the Overman, which were first introduced in The Gay Science.
Described by Nietzsche himself as “the deepest ever written,” the book is a dense and esoteric treatise on philosophy and morality, featuring as protagonist a fictionalized Zarathustra. A central irony of the text is that Nietzsche mimics the style of the Bible in order to present ideas which fundamentally oppose Christian and Jewish morality and tradition.
TV Cultura
Eumir Deodato Almeida’s singular rendition of “Also sprach Zarathustra” won the 1973 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. It is arguably the world’s most renowned Latin jazz opus ever. The introductory movement of the original work, a tone poem by Richard Strauss (1896), served as the musical motif in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Deodato’s arrangement wondrously elaborates on the movie’s modernistic theme. Strauss, in turn, was inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s iconoclastic philosophical treatise of the same title (1883-85). Zarathustra, of course, refers to Zoroaster, the Persian prophet and religious poet of antiquity (traditionally, 6th century BC), on whom Nietzsche based the principal character of his book.
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