Nelson Cavaquinho (October 29, 1911 – February 18, 1986, birth name Nelson Antônio da Silva) was one of the most important singer/composers of

samba Samba (), also known as samba urbano carioca (''urban Carioca samba'') or simply samba carioca (''Carioca samba''), is a Brazilian music genre that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century. Havi ...

. He is usually seen as a representative of the tragic aspects of samba thematics, with many songs about death and hopelessness. He was a prominent figure of samba school

Estação Primeira de Mangueira ) Estação Primeira ( en, First station) , background color = #006400 , font color = #FF1493 , image = Image:LogoMANG.png , foundation = , colors = , symbol = Repique with a crown ab ...

Biography

Nelson was born in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Coming from a poor family, he quit school at a young age to seek employment in a factory. He showed a musical talent at a young age playing a home-made guitar made of a cigar box and wires. When he could, he would borrow a

cavaquinho The cavaquinho (pronounced in Portuguese) is a small Portuguese string instrument in the European guitar family, with four wires or gut strings. More broadly, ''cavaquinho'' is the name of a four-stringed subdivision of the lute family of instr ...

and try and copy the techniques of professional cavaquinho players. He demonstrated a great ability to play the instrument and composed a

choro ''Choro'' (, "cry" or "lament"), also popularly called ''chorinho'' ("little cry" or "little lament"), is an instrumental Brazilian popular music genre which originated in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. Despite its name, the music often has a f ...

("Caminhando") which gained him notoriety as a musician (due in part to an uncommon

modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...

which made it hard for other instrumentalists to harmonize it). He was finally given a cavaquinho and having demonstrated a unique playing style on the instrument was given the nickname "Nelson Cavaquinho". He demonstrated a unique style of playing with only two fingers. As a young man he became acquainted with famous samba players like

Cartola Angenor de Oliveira, known as Cartola (Portuguese for top hat), (; October 11, 1908 – November 30, 1980) was a Brazilian singer, composer and poet considered to be a major figure in the development of samba. Cartola composed, alone or with pa ...

, Carlos Cachaça, and Zé da Zilda. He went on to compose over 600 compositions. His main partner was Guilherme de Brito. Some of his better known works are: "A Flor e o Espinho", "Folhas Secas", "O Bem e o Mal" and "Juízo Final". He died of emphysema on February 18, 1986, at the age of 74, in Rio de Janeiro.

References

External links

Nelson Cavaquinho - Dicionário Cravo Albin da Música Popular Brasileira
1911 births 1986 deaths Brazilian composers 20th-century Brazilian male singers 20th-century Brazilian singers Samba musicians 20th-century composers {{Brazil-musician-stub