Flora Purim was born March 6, 1942, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Duke Pearson, whose own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile, was the first American musician to invite her to sing alongside him on stage and on record; she went on to tour with Gil Evans. In 1967 she moved from Rio to New York with percussionist Airto Moreira, her musical partner and eventual husband, and the two built a collaborative discography spanning more than 30 albums.

In late 1971, Purim joined pianist Chick Corea, bassist Stanley Clarke, and saxophonist Joe Farrell to form Return to Forever, a group whose first two albums, Return to Forever and Light as a Feather, became foundational texts of jazz fusion. When Corea pushed the band further into electric territory, Purim and Airto went their own way instead. Her 1973 solo debut, Butterfly Dreams, immediately landed her among Down Beat magazine's Top Five Jazz Singers.

Purim earned two Grammy nominations for Best Female Jazz Performance and was named Down Beat's Best Female Singer four times, then won two competitive Grammys in 1991: Best World Music Album with Mickey Hart for Planet Drum, and Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance alongside Dizzy Gillespie and the United Nations Orchestra.

Purim's voice, wordless scatting layered over Brazilian rhythmic phrasing and jazz harmony, helped define fusion's vocal vocabulary at a moment when electric jazz was almost entirely instrumental, opening a lane later Brazilian and Latin jazz vocalists worked within for decades.