Sivuca

Severino Dias de Oliveira (May 26, 1930 – December 14, 2006), known professionally as Sivuca, was a Brazilian accordionist, guitarist and singer. In addition to his home state of Paraíba, Brazil, and cities Recife and Rio de Janeiro, he worked and lived in Paris, Lisbon, and New York Cityintermittently.

He worked with Scandinavian jazz musicians in the 1980s. His most famous songs are “João e Maria” with lyrics by Chico Buarque and “Feira de Mangaio”, named after the artisan markets of northeast Brazil. He used makeshift instruments alongside conventional ones and combined traditional regional styles such as forró and choro with jazz, bossa nova, and classical music. Sivuca and Hermeto Pascoal, both versatile multi-instrumentalists with albinism, worked together and are sometimes confused with each other.

His professional career began in Pernambuco where he went at the age of 15, and continued in his first album with Humberto Teixeira (1950), leading to work in radio and television in Rio de Janeiro from 1955. With “Os Brasileiros” he toured Europe (1958).

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