Na Roda - About - Staff

Luiz was born to a middle-class Bahian family immersed in music. His mother played piano and guitar, and sang. His paternal grandmother taught piano, and his uncle played guitar. The great saxofonist Vitor Assis Brasil was a relative, and a second cousin was concert pianist Arthur Brasil, and today several immediate family members are also professional musicians.

Luiz was born and raised on the Carmo hillside, adjacent to Pelourinho which he walked through on his way to school. This most traditional quarter of Salvador gave birth to the expressive manifestations of Afro-Brazilian culture, musical groups and societies including Filhos de Ghandi, Oludum, Ara Keto, and Ilê Aiyê.

Luiz's first instrument was a harmonica from his great-grandmother when he was four, and an accordion he still has today. He learned his first guitar chords from his mother when he was eight. Soon after, his first public performances were in a carnaval bloco, where he supervised the other drummers while playing repique. He then took seriously to guitar, and his first gigs were with local rock groups like The Tigers, Scorpius and Mar I rebel.

Luiz studied classical guitar at the Musical Institute of the Catholic University, in Salvador, Bahia. Studied arrangement and orchestration with Nelson Ayres in São Paulo, guitar and improvising with Volker Krieguel in the Goethe Institute in Salvador and learned harmony, rhythm and music history at the Foundation of Arts in São Paulo.

He worked as an instrumentalist and arranger on Caetano Veloso's recordings from 1992 to 2000 (Circuladô Vivo, Fina Estampa, Fina Estampa ao Vivo, Livro (a Grammy winner in 2000), Prenda Minha, Homaggio a Fellini e Giulietta, and Noites do Norte.

Instrumentalist, arranger and producer for Cassia Eller's projects Com Você Meu Mundo Ficaria Completo and Acústico MTV between 1999 and 2001. The latter effort won Luiz the Latin Grammy Award as producer of the Best Rock CD, 2001.

Luiz recently produced and arranged "Mares Profundos" under the artist direction of Caetano Veloso, the third CD of Bahian singer Virginia Rodrigues, whom he served as musical director since her debut CD.

Also contributed to Nando Reis's debut, 12 de Janeiro, Maria Bethânia's Ambar, Gal Costa's O Sorriso do Gato de Alice and Mina D´agua do Meu Canto, Beto Guedes (Dias de Paz), Ivan Lins (Auaiô), Moraes Moreira's La Vem o Brasil Descendo a Ladeira, Mestiço é Isso, and Moraes Carnaval Moreira), as well as CDs by Daniela Mercury, Ivete Sangalo, Fernanda Abreu, Elza Soares and Margareth Menezes.

In 1996, Luiz toured with Gilberto Gil in Europe and North America. He worked on Globo TV's Faustão, from 1990 to 1991. Also worked on film soundtracks, including the Oscar-nominated Central Station (a.k.a. "Central do Brasil") as well as O Quatrilho and Tieta do Agreste.

Luiz participated in the recordings and international tour of Morelenbaum 2/Sakamoto. Luiz's instrumental project, Duo, with cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, was hailed as a stand-out performance at the 2002 Umbria Jazz Winter Festival.

Luiz recorded and produced duets with singer Jussara Silveira for the CD "Nobreza", just one of many collaborations in his ongoing parnership with as producer/arranger/guitarist for Jussara, including the albums "Jussara Silveira", "Canções de Caymmi", and "Entre o Amor e o Mar". They also perform frequently all over Brazil. Also recently, he released Bê, a collaboration with friends Betina and Markus Schmidt.

Today, Luiz is a voting member of LARAS, the Latin Grammy organization, and he continues to be one of the most sought-after performers, arrangers, and record producers in the Brazil. He lives in Rio and Bahia.