BrazilObituaryPaulinho Nogueira
The soft, suave acoustic guitar sound that defines Brazilian popular music has Paulinho Nogueira, who has died of a heart attack aged 73, as one of its principal reference points. His biggest hit, in 1970, was Menina, which he sung as well as played, and which was also recorded in French and Italian. For the critic Zuza Homem de Mello the secret of Nogueira's compositions was that they portrayed the Brazilian soul with a tranquillity that only a few musicians still preserved.
He was a virtuoso performer, an influential pedagogue and inventor of the craviola - a small-sized cross between a guitar and a harpsichord that even fell into the hands of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who was famously photographed with it.
Nogueira's career frames the bossa nova era of the early and mid-1960s, although it this genre for which he is most remembered. As a cast member of the historic TV music show O Fino da Bossa, which featured Tom Jobim, Marcos Valle and Baden Powell, he was part of a musical boom that enjoyed global popularity. Nogueira's sophisticated harmonies, resonant nylon-stringed timbre and bossa nova syncopation inspired countless others.
Born into a musical, artistic family in Campinas near Sao Paulo, he revealed his talent at an early age. He joined a band in his teens and in his early 20s moved to Sao Paulo where he led a nocturnal life gigging in clubs.
In 1958 he recorded his first album, of solo guitar tracks, which announced the arrival of a unique sound and playing style. His compositions were mainly instrumental, but he had his first hit in 1961 with the song Menino, Desce Dai. This gave him a prominence that was confirmed by the TV show.
He was already a teacher - one of his students was Toquinho, who became internationally known for his collaborations with the poet Vinicius de Moraes - and with the domestic decline of bossa nova in the late 1960s he pioneered a new guitar method, and wrote a classic book on it.
A shy, modest man, he continued to teach, perform and record almost an album a year all his life. His last record was an instrumental CD of Chico Buarque covers released in 2002. This year he had been working on a similar project of Tom Jobim songs. His wife of 50 years Elza found a song sheet of the Jobim's song Triste (Sad) by the guitar he was playing shortly before he died. The couple had three children.
ยท Paulinho Nogueira, guitarist and composer, born October 8 1929; died August 2 2003
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