Luiz Melodia

An independent figure outside the mainstream recording world, Luís Melodia possesses notable gifts as both a composer and performer, yet his autonomy produced a scattered body of recorded work. Numerous songs of his, now regarded as MPB standards—“Juventude Transviada,” “Pérola Negra,” “Magrelinha,” “Dores de Amores,” “Vale Quanto Pesa,” “Pra Aquietar,” “Ébano,” “Presente Cotidiano,” “Estácio, Holly Estácio,” and “Farrapo Humano”—found their way onto albums by Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia, and Zezé Motta. Born Luís Carlos dos Santos and raised as the son of Osvaldo Melodia, a sambista from Rio’s historic Estácio district, he grew up immersed in music. During adolescence he abandoned formal schooling and assembled the band Instantâneos, which specialized in covers of jovem guarda and bossa nova material. By the 1970s his fusion of classic samba with contemporary pop elements drew the interest of poets Waly Salomão and Torquato Neto. Through Salomão’s introduction, Gal Costa included “Pérola Negra” on her 1972 release Gal a Todo Vapor, while Maria Bethânia recorded “Estácio, Holly Estácio” that same year for Drama -- Anjo Exterminado; it was at this point that he began performing under the name Luís Melodia. His debut LP, Pérola Negra, appeared in 1973. The following album yielded the track Maravilhas Contemporâneas, selected in 1976 as the theme for the telenovela Pecado Capital. Melodia advanced to the finals of TV Globo’s Abertura Festival in 1975 with the song “Ébano.” He issued the album Nós in 1980, highlighted by his updated reading of Getúlio Cortes’s “Negro Gato.” Following an extended stretch of limited visibility during which he persisted in making records, he reentered the charts with his version of Cazuza’s “Codinome Beija-Flor.” A 2001 documentary directed by Karla Sabah chronicled his career.