Zé Renato earned commercial success as part of Boca Livre, appeared on Jon Anderson’s Deseo, supplied material that Anderson later interpreted, took the stage at New York’s Summerstage Festival, and shared bills with João Gilberto during Miami engagements. Among his best-known compositions are the Milton Nascimento collaboration “Anima,” the three pieces written with Cláudio Nucci—“Quem Tem a Viola,” “Song for a Rainforest,” and “Toada”—while further songs of his entered the repertoires of Milton Nascimento, Leila Pinheiro, Lulu Santos, Zizi Possi, Nana Caymmi, MPB-4, Boca Livre, and additional artists. He has also shared performances with samba elder Elton Medeiros as well as with MPB and pop figures Lenine and Pedro Luís.
Renato first took up the guitar during adolescence, entered festival circuits throughout the 1970s, and in 1977 became a member of Cantares, with whom he cut a double single the following year. In 1979 he co-founded the vocal and instrumental quartet Boca Livre alongside Maurício Maestro, Cláudio Nucci, and David Tygel, a group soon recognized as one of Brazil’s foremost vocal ensembles. While still active in the quartet he pursued separate endeavors, issuing the solo albums Fonte da Vida in 1982 and Luz e Mistério in 1984. Beginning a duo partnership with Nucci in 1984, he released Pelo Sim Pelo Não the next year; the title track, credited to Nucci, Juca Filho, and Renato, along with “A Hora e a Vez,” written with Nucci and Ronaldo Bastos, both appeared on the soundtrack to the Globo telenovela Roque Santeiro. In the same period he contributed vocals to the Globo series O Tempo e o Vento, performing Tom Jobim’s “Rodrigo, Meu Capitão” and “Dona Bibiana.”
Forming Banda Zil in 1986, Renato recorded the album Zil with the group in 1988; the record reached the United States, Europe, and Japan in 1990, where it remained on Billboard’s Latin charts for two weeks. He joined Al Di Meola’s ensemble in 1991, contributing to the album Tirami Su and touring with Di Meola across the U.S. and Europe. In 1993, alongside Victor Biglione and Litto Nebbia, he made the album Ponto de Encontro in Argentina. Arranha-Céu, a tribute to the classic repertoire of Sílvio Caldas, earned critical acclaim as the year’s finest release, and its track “Mulher” was featured in the SBT telenovela Éramos Seis. Renato departed Boca Livre in 2000; from 2001 onward he concentrated on reviving historic samba compositions and composing new sambas in the traditional mold.
