He more or less made a Baiana out of Carmen Miranda. That's right, we're talking about the guy who helped Carmen earn the fruit on her head with his song "O Que é Que a Baiana Tem?"

References to the African candomblé religion and evocations of the local fisherman's days continued to enliven his lyrics with Bahian detail long after he had moved to Rio. But his music is also notable for the use of colloquial language, naturalistic storytelling, and complex chord changes, none of which were lost on those who took up his songwriting mantle in the 1960s.

Dorival's toadas, modinhas, condomblé invocations, and sambas spanned five decades of singing and songwriting. The immediacy of his rich, massive bass voice directly communicates both the spirituality and sensuality of the coastal state. He was gifted with the voice of three men.

His compositions are, like Ary Barroso's Aquarela do Brasil of similar vintage, standards deep in the conciousness of his country. After numerous hits in the 1930s and 1940s with and without Carmen Miranda, it is impossible to imagine the decades of emerging urban sophistication in his nation without his melodies as the soundtrack. Unlike, for instance, the hits of Tin Pan Alley in North America, his songs never faded with his songbook taken up by every generation of singer. As for Dorival himself, he continued to perform in excellent voice into the the late 1970s.