Brazil's Duprat, key Tropicalia figure, dies at 74

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Oct 27 (Reuters) Composer and arranger Rogerio Duprat, a key figure in the Tropicalia movement that revolutionized Brazilian music in the 1960s, has died in Sao Paulo at age 74, local media reported today.

Duprat had suffered from bladder cancer and Alzheimer's disease and was in hospital for the past three months, his family said. He died yesterday.

Rita Lee of the influential cult group Os Mutantes called him the George Martin of the Tropicalia movement -- a reference to the producer behind the Beatles' most ambitious work.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1932, he studied in Europe with avant-garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen before returning to Brazil to score films.

In the mid-1960s, as Brazil fell under military rule, he met Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and others who were forging a new sound blending Brazilian styles such as samba and bossa nova with rock from Britain and the United States.

He arranged several songs on the seminal 1968 ''Tropicalia'' album which featured Gil, Veloso, Gal Costa and others. He also worked closely with Os Mutantes, who are cited as an influence by several British and US acts today. They played on his own 1968 solo album ''A Banda Tropicalista'' (The Tropical Band).

In later years, he lived a reclusive life on a farm in Sao Paulo state.

Gil, who is now Brazil's culture minister, told O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper: ''He was a fundamental figure for tropicalismo, an extraordinary collaborator.'' Veloso, also one of Brazil's most revered musicians, called him one of the most important influences on his professional life. ''No one knew how to produce like him,'' he said.

REUTERS PDM VC2008