Angela Bofill

Bofill was born on 2nd May 1954 in the Brooklyn area of New York City to a Cuban father and a Puerto Rican mother. Raised in The Bronx, Bofill grew up listening to Latin music and was also inspired by African-American performers. During Bofill’s childhood, her weekends were taken up studying classical music and singing in New York City’s All City Chorus, which featured the best singers from all of the high schools in the five boroughs. For high school, Bofill attended Hunter College High School; graduating in 1972. Bofill later studied at the Manhattan School of Music, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in 1976.

Bofill began her professional career, singing during her teenage years. Bofill performed with Ricardo Marrero & the Group and Dance Theater of Harlem chorus before being introduced to Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen of the jazz label GRP Records by Dave Valentin, her friend and jazz flutist. Grusin and Rosen signed Bofill and produced her first album, Angie, in 1978. Angie was well received both critically and commercially. Less than a year later, a second album, Angel of the Night was released and outperformed its predecessor.

Clive Davis, showed interest in Bofill. Arista had a distribution deal with GRP. Bofill switched labels for her next album, Something About You (1981). The following year, Bofill and Walden reunited for Too Tough. Several months later, Bofill released her final collaboration with Walden, Teaser. Bofill recorded two more albums for Arista, Let Me Be the One (1984) and Tell Me Tomorrow (1985). She moved to Capitol Records and released Intuition (1988). She recorded three more albums over the next eight years.