Nélson Jacobina Rocha Pires (1953 – May 31, 2012) was a Brazilian lyricist, songwriter and

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

, famous for his enduring partnership with fellow musician

Jorge Mautner Henrique George Mautner (born January 17, 1941), better known by his stage name Jorge Mautner, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, lyricist, violinist, actor, screenwriter, film director and poet, considered to be a pioneer of the MPB scene and of ...

, with whom he wrote, among many other songs, the 1974 hit "

Maracatu Atômico "Maracatu Atômico" (Portuguese for "''Atomic Maracatu''") is a song written and composed by Brazilian musicians Jorge Mautner and Nélson Jacobina in 1974, and originally performed by Mautner on his self-titled album released in the same year. It ...

Biography

Jacobina was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1953. His father, Nelcy Rocha Pires, was a chivalry officer for the Brazilian Army, and his mother, Eloá Jacobina, was a translator and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. Nelcy died in 1954, when Nélson was only 1 year old, and Eloá eventually remarried filmmaker Fernando Coni Campos. Nélson had three other brothers, one of them being Rubinho Jacobina, also a musician. Jacobina discovered his vocation for music in the early 1970s, when he founded, alongside Vinicius Cantuária and Arnaldo Brandão, the MPB group Banda Atômica. In 1974 the group would open a show for

, and since then Mautner and Jacobina became very close friends and musical partners; in the same year they wrote their first song together, "

". Initially performed by Mautner on his 1974 self-titled album, it would acquire higher success after being covered by Gilberto Gil and, even later, by pioneering

Mangue Bit The mangue bit or manguebeat movement is a cultural movement created circa 1991 in the city of Recife in Northeast Brazil in reaction to the cultural and economic stagnation of the city. The movement largely focuses on music, but it has its own fas ...

band Nação Zumbi. Among other hits written by the duo are "Lágrimas Negras" (performed by Gal Costa), "Balaio Grande" (performed by Dorival Caymmi) and "Andar com Fé" (performed by Gilberto Gil). In 1988 he and Mautner released the collaborative album ''Árvore da Vida''. In 1997 they released another collaborative album, ''Estilhaços de Paixão'', alongside

Celso Sim Celso is a given name, a variant of Celsus. It may refer to: People * Celso Sozzini (1517-1570), Italian freethinker * Celso Mancini (1542-1612), Italian Roman Catholic prelate * Celso Zani (1580-unknown), Italian Roman Catholic prelate * Celso Gol ...

. In 2002 Jacobina served as a guest musician on synthpop band Metrô (band), Metrô third studio album, ''Déjà-Vu (Metrô album), Déjà-Vu'', providing some acoustic guitar passages. Later on he founded the big band Orquestra Imperial alongside many other icons of MPB and Brazilian rock such as Rodrigo Amarante (of Los Hermanos fame), Moreno Veloso, Domenico Lancellotti, Alexandre Kassin, Nina Becker, Thalma de Freitas and Wilson das Neves. Jacobina served as the band's guitarist until 2012, when he died at age 58 of lung cancer on May 31; he was diagnosed with the disease as early as 2008. Orquestra Imperial had finished and released its second studio album a couple of months before Jacobina's death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jacobina, Nelson 1953 births 2012 deaths Brazilian male songwriters Brazilian lyricists Brazilian guitarists Brazilian male guitarists Música Popular Brasileira guitarists Musicians from Rio de Janeiro (city) Deaths from lung cancer Deaths from cancer in Rio de Janeiro (state) Orquestra Imperial members