Waldir Azevedo achieved unmatched commercial success among choro composers and performers, and perhaps across Brazilian music when success is measured proportionally. He broke new ground by probing the expressive range of the cavaquinho, shaping melodies that remained straightforward yet instantly engaging. Across his career he committed 132 works spanning many styles to disc, issued on 50 78-rpm records and 20 LPs—one of them a joint release with his chief competitor Jacob do Bandolim. His pieces also appeared on releases from Japan, Germany, and the United States, where the Percy Faith Orchestra’s version of “Delicado” surpassed one million copies sold.
Azevedo began on the flute at seven, soon adding mandolin and then cavaquinho. He later mastered six- and seven-string violões and made his first public appearance on flute in 1933. An early ambition to fly was blocked by a heart ailment. While singing and playing tenor violão he entered the ensemble Águias de Prata, which performed at the Copacabana Palace and cut an album for Victor; at the same time he held a post at Light Company. When Dilermando Reis sought a cavaquinho player for his regional, Azevedo auditioned at Rádio Clube during his honeymoon, secured the chair, and kept it for two years.
Reis left in 1947 to pursue a solo path, and Azevedo assumed direction of the group. He backed hundreds of singers and instrumentalists, from unknowns to established names, gradually steering attention toward his own material. Because Continental Records occupied the same building, he received an invitation to record “Brasileirinho” after repeated radio airings—an opportunity that arose precisely when Jacob do Bandolim moved from Continental to RCA Victor. Issued in December, the single met immediate and widespread acclaim.
The 1950s proved equally fertile; Azevedo produced further successes such as the baião “Delicado,” the choro “Pedacinhos do Céu,” “Chiquita,” and “Vê se Gostas.” He toured South America and Europe for eleven years, twice under the auspices of the Brazilian foreign service’s Caravanas da Música Brasileira. In London he performed on a BBC broadcast heard in 52 countries.
A 1964 automobile accident claimed his daughter’s life and precipitated a prolonged depression. In 1967 he acquired formal music literacy. While living in Brasília DF in 1971 he suffered another mishap that nearly severed his third finger, forcing a year-and-a-half hiatus from music. Following multiple operations he resumed live performance in 1974 at the Clube do Choro of Brasília. Capitalizing on the choro resurgence of the 1970s, he returned to the studio and appeared on television programs including Sabor bem Brasil, Seis e Meia, Pixinguinha, and Choro na Praça.
November 1989 brought a thirtieth-anniversary tribute to “Brasileirinho” at São Paulo’s Teatro Municipal; among the participants were Paulinho da Viola, Ademilde Fonseca, and Paulo Moura.
