The son of a peasant and accordion player, he was attracted to the 8-bass accordion at an early age, although he started out by accompanying his father by playing the zabumba (a type of bass drum) and singing at parties and religious celebrations. He left home in 1930 to join the army, and toured Brazil with an army band until 1939. Gonzaga decided to remain in Rio de Janeiro with a recently purchased accordion. He performed in the streets and in bars, playing boleros, waltzes and tangos.
After noticing that the Northeastern immigrants missed the music from their hometowns, he started to give listeners the sort of music they craved to hear: xaxados, baiões, chamegos and cocos. At Ary Barroso’s talent show, Luiz Gonzaga played his chamego "Vira e Mexe" and was acclaimed by the audience and by the dreaded host, who gave him the highest score.
In 1943, he dressed up in typical Northeastern costumes for the first time to perform live, and got hyped. Later on, as well as playing popular tunes on the accordion, he began to sing his own material, and his skills as a songwriter were revealed.
Gonzaga's son, Luiz Gonzaga do Nascimento Júnior, known as Gonzaguinha, born 1945, was also a noted Brazilian singer and composer.
His greatest hit ever, "Asa Branca" (written with Humberto Teixeira), was recorded in 1947 and was covered countless times by many different artists. He worked on the radio until 1954, enjoying huge popularity. He is widely recognized for singlehandedly taking the baião style and the accordion to a wide audience. For a time RCA (now BMG), his recording label, was almost exclusively dedicated to printing his singles and albums. During the 60's, as the public taste shifted to bossa nova and iê-iê-iê, he found himself increasingly stranded from big city stages, so he toured the countryside, where his popularity never abated.
In the 70s and 80s, he slowly re-emerged, partly due to covers of his songs by famous artists like Geraldo Vandré, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, his son Gonzaguinha and Milton Nascimento. Some of his greatest hits are "Vozes da Seca" ("Voices From Drought"), "Algodão" ("Cotton"), "A Dança da Moda" ("The Dance In Fashion"), "ABC do Sertão" ("The ABC of Sertão"), "Derramaro o Gai" ("They Spilt the Gas"), "A Letra I" ("The 'i' letter"), "Imbalança" ("Shake It"), "A Volta da Asa-Branca" ("The Return Of The Picazuro Pigeon"), "Cintura Fina" ("Slender Waist"), "O Xote das Meninas" ("The Girls' Schottische", written with Zé Dantas, and "Juazeiro", "Paraíba", "Mangaratiba", "Baião-de-Dois", "No Meu Pé de Serra" ("There In My Homeland"), "Assum Preto" ("Blue-back Grassquit"), "Légua Tirana" ("Tyrannical league"), "Qui Nem Jiló" ("Like Solanum gilo", written with Humberto Teixeira. Other successful collaborations resulted in "Tá Bom Demais" ("It's Very Good") (with Onildo de Almeida), "Danado de Bom" ("Very Good") (with João Silva), "Dezessete e Setecentos" ("Seventeen And Seven hundred") and "Cortando o Pano" ("Cutting Cloth") (both with Miguel Lima).
Gonzaga died of natural causes at the age of 76.
Dança Mariquinha
Luiz Gonzaga Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Dança, dança, Mariquinha
Para o povo apreciar
Essa boa mazurquinha
Que pra você vou cantar
Ouça, meu bem,
A sanfona tocar
Quitiribom, quitiribom,
Toca no baixo desse acordeom
Quitiribom, quitiribom,
Que mazurquinha
Que compasso bom
Quando pego na sanfona
A turma se levanta
E pede uma mazurca
Quando bato a mão no fole
Sei que a turma toda
Vai ficar maluca
Todo mundo se admira
Do fraseada que a sanfona diz
Quando acaba a contradança
O povo admirado ainda pede bis.
In Dança Mariquinha, Luiz Gonzaga sings about a dance that is sure to please the people. The dance is a mazurka, a type of dance that originated in Poland in the 19th century and was popular in Brazil during the early 20th century. The lyrics encourage the listener to dance along to the music of the accordion, which is played with expert skill by Gonzaga himself. The onomatopoeic refrain of "quitiribom, quitiribom" adds to the energy of the song and invites the listener to move their feet to the beat.
Gonzaga describes the power of the accordion to get people up and dancing. He knows that when he "bates a mão no fole", or hits the bellows of the instrument, the crowd will go wild. The lyrics portray the joy and admiration of the audience for the musicians, as they request an encore at the end of the dance. Gonzaga's passion for the mazurka and his skill on the accordion are apparent in every line of the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Dança, dança, Mariquinha
Come on and dance, Mariquinha
Para o povo apreciar
So everyone can enjoy
Essa boa mazurquinha
This good mazurka
Que pra você vou cantar
That I'm going to sing for you
Ouça, meu bem,
Listen, my dear,
A sanfona tocar
To the sound of the accordion
Quitiribom, quitiribom,
Strumming, strumming,
Toca no baixo desse acordeom
Play the bass on that accordion
Que mazurquinha
What a nice mazurka
Que compasso bom
What a great beat
Quando pego na sanfona
When I start playing the accordion
A turma se levanta
The crowd gets up
E pede uma mazurca
And asks for a mazurka
Quando bato a mão no fole
When I hit the bellows
Sei que a turma toda
I know that everyone
Vai ficar maluca
Will go crazy
Todo mundo se admira
Everyone is amazed
Do fraseada que a sanfona diz
By the phrases that the accordion plays
Quando acaba a contradança
When the contradance is over
O povo admirado ainda pede bis.
The amazed crowd still asks for more.
Writer(s): Miguel Lima, Luiz Gonzaga Copyright: Irmaos Vitale S.A. - Industria E Comercio
Contributed by Alexandra K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.