Zé Geraldo

Zé Geraldo cultivated a devoted following throughout the 1970s by blending the era’s peace-and-love ethos with elements of Brazilian and American folk traditions. During the mid-1990s he broadened his reach into the United States and Canada, where he regularly performs for crowds of Latino and Brazilian listeners. Among his most enduring successes stand “Senhorita,” “Banquete de Hipócritas,” “Milho aos Pombos,” and “Negro Amor,” the last a Péricles Cavalcanti adaptation of Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue.”

At eighteen he relocated to São Paulo. From 1975 to 1978 he collected prizes at numerous festivals and secured a contract with CBS. His debut solo album, Terceiro Mundo, appeared in 1979 and contained “Reciclagem” and “Promessas de um Idiota às Seis da Manhã,” both penned by Geraldo himself, alongside “Cidadão” by Lúcio Barbosa. In 1980 he joined TV Globo’s MPB-Shell festival with the song “Rio Doce,” returning the following year to present “Milho aos Pombos.” The tracks “Semente de Tudo” and “São Sebastião do Rodeio” later found their way into the network’s telenovelas Livre Para Voar and Paraíso.