Luiz Melodia

The Poet of Estácio

Luiz Carlos dos Santos took his stage name from his father Oswaldo Melodia's nickname. He was born on January 7, 1951 in the Estácio neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, the date given by both Wikipedias, MusicBrainz and the MPB dictionary though Rolling Stone Brasil says January 5, and died there on August 4, 2017, aged 66. He grew up in the Atrás do Zinco community on the Morro de São Carlos, began with the singer and drummer Walmir Lucena in 1963, and formed Os Instantâneos in 1964, later Os Filhos do Sol. He began composing at 14; Melodia himself said radio, with bolero, Northeastern music and Jovem Guarda, was his main inspiration. Rolling Stone Brasil says the nickname Negro Gato came after his 1980 recording of Getúlio Côrtes's "Negro Gato".

In the early 1970s he was discovered in Estácio by Waly Salomão and Torquato Neto, with Hélio Oiticica named by several sources, and Torquato wrote about the skinny black man from the Morro de São Carlos in his Geléia Geral column. Maria Bethânia recorded "Estácio, Holy Estácio" in 1972 and Gal Costa took "Pérola Negra" into her show Fa-Tal. His first album, Pérola Negra, came out in June 1973; in 1975 he was a finalist at TV Globo's Festival Abertura with "Ébano", and "Juventude Transviada" was in the telenovela Pecado Capital. Maravilhas Contemporâneas (1976), Mico de Circo (1978), Nós (1980), Felino (1983) and Pintando o Sete (1991) followed. Press called him maldito for refusing label demands such as making a samba album.

Acústico ao Vivo (1999) was his only gold record, with over 100,000 copies per Rolling Stone Brasil. He played Montreux in 2004 and toured Europe with a big band in 2012, received the Ordem do Mérito Cultural in 2011, and made Zerima (2014, Som Livre), his first new studio album in 13 years, which won best MPB singer at the 26th Prêmio da Música Brasileira. His last show was in Jaú, São Paulo state, in July 2016. Toninho Vaz's biography Meu nome é ébano came out in 2020, and the documentaries Todas as Melodias (2020) and Luiz Melodia: No Coração do Brasil (2024) cover his life. Rolling Stone Brasil ranked him 45th among Brazil's 100 greatest musicians and 27th among its voices.