Eduardo Bort Garcera (January 2, 1948 – February 26, 2020) was a Spanish

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer.

Life and career

Born in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

, Bort started his career in the late 1960s as guitarist in such bands as Los Exciters, Los Bodgies, and La Oveja Negra, before working as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

in Switzerland, Germany, Britain and France. After an unsuccessful collaboration with the Paris band Out, he returned to Spain."Eduardo Bort dies, the Spanish “Sugarman” who may have been Queen", ''Archyde.com'', February 27, 2020
Retrieved 3 March 2020 In the early 1970s, Bort began to compose songs, inspired by the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and

Lord Dunsany Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957, usually Lord Dunsany) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. Over 90 volumes of fiction, essays, poems and plays appeared in his lifetime.Lanham, M ...

. He founded the band Yann with musicians Vicente "Fony" Font (lead vocals), José Soriano (keyboards), Marino Hernández (bass), and Vicente Alcañiz (drums). In

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

in 1974, they recorded Bort's songs, with some lyrics by Juan Beltrán Pilato, for a demo version of what was intended to be the band's debut album. With Alcañiz, Bort took the tapes to London, where they were heard by

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

's A&R director Joop Visser. He was impressed and suggested that the album be re-recorded in London, and then promoted widely. However, none of the other musicians wished to move to Britain, and Visser lost interest. The album, self-titled ''Eduardo Bort'' and with re-recorded vocals by Bort, was eventually released on the Movieplay label in Spain in 1975. The release was poorly promoted, though Bort did perform its songs at several European

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

s. Arturo Blay, "'Así se hizo' - Yann", ''EduardoBort.es''
Retrieved 3 March 2020 Bort also worked as a

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

in the 1970s, on albums by

Pau Riba Pau Riba (7 August 1948 – 6 March 2022) was a Spanish author and Mallorquín versatile artist. Riba was born in Palma de Mallorca, Spain on 7 August 1948. He started working during the 60s in the context of the counterculture. Riba died from p ...

and the band Iceberg."Mor el guitarrista valencià Eduardo Bort", ''Enderrock'', 26 February 2020
Retrieved 4 March 2020 In 1983 he recorded his second album, ''Silvia'', dedicated to his daughter who had died at a young age. It was released on Bort's own label, Bambule. He continued to perform and tour in Europe, Latin America, and Japan, and on one occasion performed for

U.S. Marines The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the Marines, maritime land force military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary warfare, exped ...

heading for

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

on an aircraft carrier moored at Valencia. In 2012, he released the album ''Charly Buffalo'', in honour of his friend Vicente Ausina."El último acorde de Eduardo Bort, pionero del rock progresivo español", ''El Pais'', 27 February 2020
Retrieved 4 March 2020 Over several decades, Bort's debut album acquired a cult reputation, and copies changed hands for high prices. In 2019, the Teatro Principal de València hosted a tribute concert in his honour. "Fallece el músico valenciano Eduardo Bort, leyenda del rock progresivo", ''SGAE'', February 27, 2020
Retrieved 3 March 2020 Bort died in Valencia in 2020, aged 72, from

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bort, Eduardo 1948 births 2020 deaths Spanish guitarists Progressive rock guitarists Deaths from lung cancer in Spain