According to Greek mythology, Orpheus, god of melody, had no children with his beloved Eurydice. With the misfortune of Eurydice's death and his ill-fated attempt to rescue her from Hades, Orpheus becomes silent and dies. Vinicius de Moraes, with his Orfeu da Conceição, reincorporated the myth in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, in 1954.
In this play, the God of melody also loses his Eurydice and his music with her. In 1951, however, on the Morro do Estácio, the birthplace of samba in Rio de Janeiro, was born the son of Oswaldo Melodia, a sambista and composer, with a Eurídice.
The parents baptized their son with the name of Luiz Carlos dos Santos. The boy maintained an umbilical link with his birthplace - where his mother Eurídice never left - and sanctified this place, in the melodies he learned playing the 4-string guitar of his father, Oswaldo Melodia.
Luiz also became a melody, Luiz Melodia, a Carioca God of music, a black Orpheus.
In 1963 he had his first adventures as a musician, playing in bars and in 1964 he formed the ensemble 'Os instantâneos’, playing bossa nova and songs of the Jovem guarda movement (the latter not so well known globally today, but which was the genre that consecrated Roberto Carlos). His experience with the original samba of his Estácio, mixes with other forms and musical expressions, configuring the genius of this Orpheus that is completely revealed, like a polished jewel, in 1973 in his first authorial album, “Pérola Negra”.
Luiz Melodia begins with masterpieces, such as Estácio, Holly Estácio () . In this samba-choro, with a taste of bolero or cha-cha-cha, this Orpheus declares his love to his neighbourhood Estácio: “If someone wants to kill me of love, kill me in Estácio”. This debut album comes as a manifesto, like the inauguration of a new genre, which condenses the various expressions of Brazilian music.
Luiz Melodia is like a rhapsode, absorbing what is happening in the universe of music at that moment condensing all that - rock, bossa nova, sambas from the roots of the hill, jovem-guarda, forró, and everything else possible – in a unique voice with epiphanic originality. Still in “Pérola Negra”, Abundantemente morte is another precious pearl of music and poetry (in 2021 Luedji Luna masterfully recorded this song: )
His second album, from 1976, ‘Maravilhas contemporâneas’, continues this process of revelation of the sublime present in the simplicity. In this album, Juventude Transviada () becomes an immediate success and Gal Costa records it in her 1979 album ‘Gal Tropical.’
In 1978, Luiz Melodia launches ‘Mico de Circo’. Here, Melodia remembers where his voice comes from, recording A voz do Morro, a samba by Zé Keti (here in a live recording)
Luiz recorded another 13 albums, most of them with his own compositions. One cannot speak of an evolution of a musical language, in the case of Luiz Melodia, because from his first album, it was already perfect, in lyrics, melody, arrangements. His work was always completely contemporary aesthetically.
Luiz’ music shared an essence of eternity, typical of gods. No matter when one hears his voice, his music, this is always a voice from today, from now. Everything is new and everything is tradition in Luiz Melodia. Listening to his latest album, ‘Zerima’, from 2014, is like being transported to a universe outside of time, to the eternity that resides in his unique voice.
A rare bone marrow cancer deprived us of Luiz Melodia. On August 4, 2017, the voice of this Black Orpheus fell silent. He silenced as he wished and declared in Estácio, holy Estácio: bem no compasso, bem justo ao passo do passista da escola de samba do Largo do Estácio.
