Arnaldo Antunes (born on September 2, 1960), is a writer and composer from Brazil. He began as a member of the band Aguilar e Banda Performática in the late 1970s. For most of the 1980s he was a member of the famous rock band Titãs. After 1992 he had six solo albums. Since 1992 he has been an award winning poet, but he was first published in 1983. He is noted abroad for collaborations with Marisa Monte. Later on in 2002, he took part in a collaboration effort between Marisa Monte and Carlinhos Brown, in which they dubbed themselves Os Tribalistas (The Tribalists). The CD was a major success, starting with the single Já Sei Namorar.
One of Chico’s most famous songs is Construção (Construction), in which he literally constructs a song that works on many levels due to the fact that each line can be cut in half and mixed with the ending of another line (it is also “proparoxítona”…see comments). At the bottom, there is a beautifully written duet he wrote which he sings with Nara Leão called Com Açúcar, Com Afeto (With Sugar, With Affection)
Francisco Buarque de Hollanda (born June 19, 1944 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), popularly known as Chico Buarque, is a singer, guitarist, composer, dramatist, and writer. He is best known for his music, however, which often comments on Brazil’s social, economic and cultural reality.
The son of an academic (Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda), Buarque wrote and studied literature as a child and came to music through the bossa nova compositions of João Gilberto. He lived in several locations throughout his childhood, though mostly in São Paulo and Italy. He performed music throughout the 1960s as well as writing a play that was deemed dangerous by the Brazilian military dictatorship of the time. Buarque, along with several of his fellow musicians, including Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, were threatened by the government and eventually left Brazil in 1970. Buarque moved back to Italy, Veloso and Gil to London. He came back to Brazil in 1971, a year before the others, and continued to record albums, perform, and write, though much of his material was not allowed by government censors. He released several more albums in the 1980s and published three novels in the 1990s and 2000s, all of which were acclaimed critically.
Unfortunately, some singers leave us in the beginning or the middle of their brightest moments. I’d like to pay respect to those musical stars who have deeply left their mark on the Brazilian music scene. Starting with Tim Maia, I’ll also be covering in further parts Chico Science, Elis Regina, Raul Seixas, Cassia Eller, Renato Russo and of course, Cazuza.
Tim Maia
Tim Maia, born Sebastião Rodrigues Maia in Rio de Janeiro, was a Brazilian musician known for his iconoclastic, ironic, outspoken, and polemical (but always humorous) musical style. He was also known for his habit of lightheartedly missing appointments and even important gigs.
Maia performed in a variety of musical genres, ranging from happy and energetic dance music to sentimental songs such as his hit “Me Dê Motivo”. He performed soul music, funk, bossa nova (in the 1990s), romantic songs, American pop, samba, baião, and Música Popular Brasileira.
Early Career
As a young age, Maia began to take guitar classes and was soon teaching children in the neighborhood of Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro. Grouping himself with other local musicians, he joined the Matoso gang (Maia, Jorge Ben, Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Esteves, later taking on the name Erasmo Carlos, and several others), named after the street where they used to hang out.
After his father’s demise in 1959, Maia won a scholarship to study communications in the United States, where he lived for four years. There he started as a vocalist, having joined the Ideals, but in 1963, he was arrested for possession of marijuana.
Jailed for six months and then deported to Brazil, he did not find any warmth on the part of his old comrades Esteves and (Roberto) Carlos, who were beginning to enjoy the massive success of Jovem Guarda movement, which would get a grip on the entire country in a few years. Moving to São Paulo, he had some support from Os Mutantes instead, which led him to launch his very sucessful solo career throughout the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.
Later Career
Obese and in bad health, in March 1998 he was performing at the Municipal Theater of Niterói when he collapsed on stage. Hospitalized, he died few days later at the age of 56. According to Tim’s son Carmelo, he had suffered two cardiac arrests prior to being admitted to the hospital. In 1999 he was paid tribute in a show by several Música Popular Brasileira artists. The show was launched on CD and DVD. In 2000 he had another tribute, also released in CD.
Here is some rare footage of one of his biggest hits, Acenda o Farol.
