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Carlos Lyra
50 Years of Music


How do you determine the most significant year in an artist’s career? The year of the first recording, the first record, the first public presentation? For a composer, nothing is more important than his first composition, especially when it is interpreted by artists like Caetano Veloso and Danilo Caymmi, to mention only some of the most recent recordings. “Quando Chegares” is one of those cases. The first song, music and lyric, by Carlos Lyra, composed in 1954 when he was still an adolescent. Others would follow that same year: “Menina”, “Barquinho de Papel”, “Só Mesmo Por Amor”, “Aonde Andou Você” and “Ciúme”. The first steps in a career that added brilliance to Brazilian music. His music, and Bossa Nova, would lift Brazilian music into an international category.

In these 50 years, he released 29 recordings, including CDs and LPs, not counting the compilations, represented Brazil in various international events, wrote 3 books, taught guitar at his academy, appeared in innumerable shows, wrote, directed, staged and won awards for his plays (adult and children), in Brazil and abroad, wrote music for plays by Millôr Fernandes, Dias Gomes and Nikolai Gogol, to cite only a few, founded the CPC of UNE, was music director of the National Radio, lived in self-exile for more than eight years, wrote scores for cinema, acted in various films and was recorded by hundreds of musicians, composers and interpreters all around the world. Without mentioning the pleasure of having as music partners: Ronaldo Bôscoli, Geraldo Vandré, Chico de Assis, Oduvaldo Viana Filho, Daniel Caetano, Carlos Fernando Fortes, Maria Clara Machado, Gianfrancesco Guarnieri, Nelson Lins e Barros, Francisco Cervantes, Kate Lyra, Marino Pinto, Vinicius de Moraes, Jésus Rocha, Norman Gimble, Ruy Guerra, Heitor Valente, Chico Buarque, Paulo César Pinheiro, Zé Kéti, Millôr Fernandes, Daltony Nóbrega, Dolores Duran, Castro Alves, Machado de Assis, John Court, Paulinho Tapajós, Roberto Menescal and Joyce.

50 years of music. 50 years that deserve to be celebrated. For this
purpose, we prepared a show at Canecão on the 17th of march, 2004 where friends such as Chico Caruso, Emílio Santiago, Ivan Lins, João Donato, Leila Pinheiro, Leny Andrade, Leo Gandelman, Marcos Valle, Miúcha, Os Cariocas, Quarteto em Cy, Roberto Menescal, Toni Garrido, Wanda Sá, his daughter Kay Lyra, and his nephew Cláudio Lyra paid homage to Carlos, interpreting his greatests hits and some of his new songs, gathering in one show 50 years of his career.

The show was filmed for the DVD "Carlos Lyra - 50 Years of Music" and was released by Biscoito Fino in August of 2005.

Magda Botafogo

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