Elton Medeiros ranks among the foremost living sambistas, having forged partnerships across decades with figures such as Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho, Mauro Duarte, Zé Kéti, Candeia, Guilherme de Brito, Clementina de Jesus, and Paulinho da Viola. Among his widely known works stand “Clementina, Cadê Você?,” “Mascarada” (with Zé Kéti), “Rosa de Ouro” (with Hermínio Bello de Carvalho/Paulinho da Viola), “Sofreguidão” (with Cartola), “O Sol Nascerá” (with Cartola), “Coração de Ouro” (with J. Santana), “Quatro Crioulos” (with J. Santana), “Pressentimento” (with Hermínio B. de Carvalho), and “Maioria Sem Nenhum” (with Mauro Duarte). More than 130 of his pieces have found their way onto recordings. He serves as one of the padrinhos of the Ala dos Compositores da Portela. Festival appearances have taken him to Cannes, France; the Black Arts Festival in Dakar, Senegal; the Encontro Luso-Brasileiro da Cultura in Portugal; and the Marché International du Disque et Édition Musicale, also in Cannes. He has delivered lectures and concerts in Stockholm, Örebro, and Uppsala, Sweden, and has appeared repeatedly throughout Latin America. Three samba schools trace their origins to his initiative: GRES Tupi de Brás de Pina (late 1940s), GRES Unidos de Lucas (1967), and GRAN Quilombo.
Born and raised in the working-class neighborhood of Brás de Pina on Rio’s north side within a musical household, Medeiros grew up while his father participated in the ranchos Mimosas Cravinas, Flor do Abacate, and Corbeille das Flores. In 1938 he and his brother Aquiles Medeiros assembled a bloco alongside local friends; the group later merged with Unidos de Cintra to form União do Amor, the setting for his earliest compositions. During those same years he played trombone and saxophone in his high-school band and drums on weekends with a dance ensemble.
Medeiros turned professional as a trombonist, performing in the 1940s at Fogão Gafieira and Rádio Roquette Pinto. Toward the end of that decade he met Zé Kéti, initiating a lasting songwriting collaboration, and with Jocir Santana he established the bloco Tupi de Brás de Pina. His first samba to reach commercial release, “Caprichos da Natureza” by Titino, appeared in the early 1950s. In 1954 the samba-enredo “Exaltação a São Paulo” won Portela’s internal contest and was staged by the school; the following year Jorge Goulart performed it on radio in an arrangement by Radamés Gnattali scored for symphonic orchestra and ten matchbox players. Around the same time Jamelão recorded the samba de terreiro “Falta de Queda” (with Ari da Pinga). Early in the 1960s Medeiros joined the influential ensemble A Voz do Morro, which documented sambas by him and fellow composers for Musidisc. The landmark 1964 production Opinião featured his “O Sol Nascerá” (with Cartola) in Nara Leão’s interpretation, and the number later appeared on her debut LP. In 1965 he presented his own material at the historic Rosa de Ouro show, captured live and issued on two Odeon albums. That same year he joined Paulinho da Viola for the RGE release Na Madrugada. Also in 1966 he accompanied Clementina de Jesus at the Black Arts Festival in Dakar, Senegal, and supplied the score for the film Edu, Coração de Ouro (Domingos de Oliveira). In 1967 he helped form the group Os Cinco Crioulos, which recorded for Odeon.
His debut solo album, Elton Medeiros, arrived in 1973 and included “Pressentimento” (Elton Medeiros/Hermínio Bello de Carvalho), which had placed third at the Bienal do Samba. Alongside Candeia, Guilherme de Brito, and Nelson Cavaquinho he recorded the album Quatro Grandes do Samba and appeared with them in the show Roda. Performances followed in Portugal in 1986 and a Swedish tour in 1991.
