Billy Blanco | Brazilian composer, 87

Billy Blanco, a veteran Bossa Nova composer, died Friday in a Rio de Janeiro hospital from complications of a stroke he suffered in October.

Mr. Blanco was at the heart of the Bossa Nova movement when it bloomed in the early 1960s.

He wrote more than 300 songs and collaborated with the genre's biggest names, such as Tom Jobim, Joao Gilberto, and Baden Powell.

Blanco was known as the "Diamond of Bossa Nova." He was born in the Amazon jungle city of Belem, but migrated south to Sao Paulo as a young man to study architecture. He moved on to Rio and quickly launched his composing career.

- AP