1927

He left Pernambuco (Northeast Brazil) for Rio de Janeiro (Southeast) at age 15, hiding on a ship, and remained in Rio as a construction worker. He used to play percussion since childhood and soon joined a percussive Carnival group, one of whose members invited him to perform on the radio in 1950. From then on, he worked as a composer, musician and singer, recording his first single in 1969 and his first album six years later. In the beginning, he would unsuccessfully record cocos (Northeastern, hypnotic voice/percussion style). Eventually, he began to meet his audience. The albums’ repertoires featured anonymous composers (some of which would use nicknames to preserve their clandestine status) and Bezerra became well known for crafting the "sambandido" (gangsta samba) style, way before the American gangsta rap would occur. Running ahead of Brazilian hip hop, he was broadcasting the undeclared civil war from the other side of the trenches: "Malandragem Dá um Tempo" ("Hey, Cat, Give Us a Break"), "Seqüestraram Minha Sogra" ("Somebody Kidnapped My Mother-in-Law), "Defunto Cagüete" ("Tell-On Defunct"), "Overdose de Cocada" ("Coconut Candy Overdose"), "Lugar Macabro" ("A Macabre Place"), "Piranha" ("Whore"). In 1995 he recorded "Moreira da Silva, Bezerra da Silva e Dicró: Os Três Malandros In Concert" for Sony Music – a parody on the three tenors (Pavarotti, Domingos, Carreras). The samba master became the subject of a book, "Bezerra da Silva - Produto do Morro", by Letícia Vianna, in 1998.