Pepeu Gomes

Pepeu Gomes stands out as a guitarist and mandolinist of exceptional skill whose contributions helped spark the choro revival during the 1970s through his work with Os Novos Baianos. Hardships that routinely block instrumentalists in Brazil from fully exploring their ideas have hampered his solo path, yet the body of recordings he has released still reveals an uncommon inventive gift.

Born into a musical household that included nine brothers, Gomes counts among them the multi-instrumentalist Jorginho Gomes, who plays drums, cavaquinho, and guitar while also composing, and Carlinhos Gomes. One of his first inspirations was the pau elétrico, the pioneering Brazilian electric guitar Dodô created in Salvador, BA, in 1941. At age eleven he assembled his initial band, the Cats, drawing on a shifting roster of his siblings. The group later performed and recorded under the name Os Minos; a clothing manufacturer sponsored their single for Copacabana, and they appeared on São Paulo television programs hosted by Eduardo Araújo and Ed Carlos.

Strongly drawn to Jimi Hendrix in 1968, Gomes formed the professional ensemble Os Leifs alongside Jorginho, Carlinhos, and their colleague Lico. Early the next year, shortly after Gilberto Gil’s release from detention, Gil and Caetano Veloso were readying a farewell concert ahead of their enforced exile when Gil noticed Gomes on television. Impressed by the guitarist’s command, Gil immediately asked Os Leifs to back both artists at the Barra 69 presentation. Os Novos Baianos—then an emerging quartet featuring Moraes Moreira, Galvão, Paulinho Boca de Cantor, and Baby Consuelo, later known as Baby do Brasil—attended the same event and invited the Leifs musicians to collaborate, valuing their solid instrumental foundation. The combined lineup opened the Southeast leg of the Desembarque Dos Bichos Depois do Dilúvio tour in 1969, following its Salvador premiere the year before, and soon issued the first Os Novos Baianos album, Ferro Na Boneca.

Gomes left Os Leifs to join the Enigmas and accompanied them to Rio, where the two bands shared an extended underground residency at Cimento Armado, the venue that became Teatro Tereza Raquel. After a 1971 engagement with João Gilberto, Os Novos Baianos and Gomes turned toward deeper exploration of Brazilian traditions in 1972, culminating in the landmark album Acabou Chorare on Som Livre. The guitar solo on “Tinindo Trincando” grew directly from that quest for an authentically Brazilian approach and marked the start of Gomes’s distinctive personal language. The record’s fusion of the group’s countercultural aesthetic with a contemporary blend of rock and traditional choro helped rekindle interest in the genre throughout the decade, drawing many younger players into its orbit.

While remaining active with Os Novos Baianos, Gomes directed the trio A Cor do Som, initially comprising Jorginho on guitar and Dadi Carvalho on bass. His debut solo effort, Geração do Som, appeared in 1978 and showcased an unusual mixture of choro, samba, frevo, and rock. The album cover displayed his own invention, the guibando, a double-neck instrument merging electric guitar and mandolin. The device drew admiration from John McLaughlin when Gomes supported Gilberto Gil at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland.