1973

Regarded as a major Brazilian music genius, Pixinguinha revolutionized the music in Brazil in different aspects: as a songwriter, arranger and instrumentalist. His father was an amateur flutist, and Pixinguinha took up the instrument, too. He started out playing with orchestras. His fame as a flutist grew thanks to the improvisations that had a big impact on audiences, especially due to his young age. He wrote his first choros, polkas and waltzes in the 1910s, founding his own group, Grupo do Pixinguinha, which later switched names and became the prestigious Os Oito Batutas. With the Batutas, he took a legendary tour around Europe in the early 1920s, aiming at the promotion of Brazilian music. The groups led by Pixinguinha were very important for the music industry in Brazil. The Orquestra Típica Pixinguinha-Donga participated in various recording sessions in a time when the electric system was a big novelty. He was also the leader of the groups Diabos do Céu, Guarda Velha and Orquestra Columbia de Pixinguinha. In the 30s and 40s, he recorded as a flutist and as a saxophonist many pieces that would become the basis of the chro repertoire, for soloist and bands. Some of them are "Segura Ele", "Ainda Me Recordo", "1 x 0", "Proezas de Solon", "Naquele Tempo", "Abraçando Jacaré", "Os Oito Batutas", "As Proezas do Nolasco" and "Sofres Porque Queres". In 1940, indicated by maestro Villa-Lobos, he was in charge of the selection of popular musicians who participated in the historic recording session conducted by maestro Leopold Stokowski, which promoted Brazilian music in the USA. He became an arranger at the label Victor in 1929, incorporating Brazilian elements into the traditonal ways of writing arrangements. He traded the flute for the saxophone in 1946, according to biographers, because he had lost the hang of the flute due to alcoholic excesses. Still, he never quit composing, not even when he had a first heart attack, in 1964, which kept him in hospital for 20 days. After his death, in 1973, a series of tribute shows and albums were released. The city hall (in Rio de Janeiro) produced big events in 1988 and 1998, when he would have turned 90 and 100 years-old, respectively. Some of his songs received lyrics before or after his death, and "Carinhoso" is the most famous of all - it was first recorded in 1928; João de Barro wrote the lyrics in 1937. Rosa" (Otávio de Souza), "Lamento" (Vinicius de Moraes) and "Isso É Que É Viver" (Hermínio Bello de Carvalho) also received lyrics.