Luiz Gonzaga

Lore & Background

Son of Januário José dos Santos, a farmer and accordion player, and Anna Batista de Jesus, a housewife, Gonzaga was attracted to the accordion at a very early age and accompanied his father at parties and religious celebrations. He later did military service, where he learned to play the cornet, and after leaving the army he remained in Rio de Janeiro, performing in streets and bars. Noticing that Northeastern people in Rio missed their home music, he began playing xaxados, baiões, chamegos and cocos. At Ary Barroso's talent show, he played his chamego 'Vira e Mexe' and was acclaimed by the audience and host, receiving the highest score. He became a regular on radio shows and started making records.

In 1943, he dressed in typical Northeastern costumes for the first time to perform live and got hyped. He began singing his own material, and his greatest hit, 'Asa Branca' (written with Humberto Teixeira), was recorded in 1947 and covered many times. He worked on the radio well beyond 1954, though his peak popularity eventually declined. According to Caetano Veloso, he was the first significant cultural event with mass appeal in Brazil. He created with the combination of accordion, zabumba, and triangle a distinctive small pop music ensemble that became iconic in Brazilian music.

During the 1960s, as public taste shifted to bossa nova and iê-iê-iê, he found himself increasingly stranded from big city stages and toured the countryside, where his popularity never abated. In the 1970s and 1980s, he slowly re-emerged, partly due to covers of his songs by artists like Geraldo Vandré, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, his son Gonzaguinha, and Milton Nascimento. He died of natural causes around 8:00 BRT on August 2, 1989, at age 76.

Reader's Guide

Luiz Gonzaga is widely recognized for single-handedly taking the baião style and the accordion to a wide audience. His recording label, RCA (now BMG), was almost exclusively dedicated to printing his singles and albums. He has been called a 'revolutionary' by Antônio Carlos Jobim, and according to Caetano Veloso, he was the first significant cultural event with mass appeal in Brazil. His combination of accordion, zabumba, and triangle became the basic ensemble for Forró and is considered one of the western world's first small pop music ensembles, predating the popularization of the rock music ensemble by the Beatles. He received the Shell prize for Brazilian Popular Music in 1984, the fourth artist to do so after Pixinguinha, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and Dorival Caymmi. The Luiz Gonzaga Dam was named in his honor. His son, Gonzaguinha, was also a noted Brazilian singer and composer.

Did You Know?

• Luiz Gonzaga learned to play the cornet during his military service.
• His greatest hit 'Asa Branca' was recorded in 1947 and written with Humberto Teixeira.
• He received a Shell Special Prize for Brazilian Popular Music in 1984.
• The Luiz Gonzaga Dam was named in his honor.