Antônio Carlos Moreira Pires (Morais Moreira) was born in Ituaçú BA on 8 July 1947.
Raised in the backlands of Bahia, from an early age Morais Moreira played the accordion, which he later replaced with the guitar.
In 1966 Morais Moreira moved to Salvador BA and came into contact with rock and roll, as well as the creations of Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and Edu Lobo. He got a job in a bank, and during evenings of guitar playing in the hostel where he lived, he met Paulinho Boca de Cantor and Luís Galvão, with whom he created the group Os Novos Baianos, which debuted in 1968.
In 1975 Morais Moreira left the group to pursue a solo career. From then on, he was one of those responsible for the affirmation and growth of street carnival in Salvador. In 1976 he had great success at the Bahian Carnival, as a singer in Dodô and Osmar’s Trio Elétrico. In 1978, he released Pombo correio, which became a major national carnival hit.
From 1983 onwards, Morais Moreira began to develop Projeto Brasil, a series of concerts in the country’s capitals, with a carnival repertoire, frevos and marches such as Grito de Guerra and Festa do interior. At this time, disappointed with the organisation of the Salvador Carnival (too many tourists, loss of authenticity in favour of spectacle, etc.), he began to orient his work as a composer and performer towards a more acoustic path, with more integration between the erudite and the popular.
Two discs came out of this new approach: O Brasil tem concerto and Morais Moreira acústico. In 1991 he released the disc Cidadão, with the highlight being Leda, a partnership with Paulo Leminski. In 1993 he released the disc Terreiro do Mundo, with the highlight Agradeça ao Pelo (with Neguinho do Samba).
Biografia de Morais Moreira
Morais Moreira celebrated his 50th birthday in 1997 with the CD Estados, which included the hit Sinal de vida. He also released the CD 50 Carnavais on Virgin, with seven new songs and five re-recordings of old hits.
His main compositions include: Que papo e esse and Cidadão (with Capinam), Arco- íris (with Sivuca and Glorinha Gadelha), Rádio Cidadão (with Fred Gois), Estado de graça (with Armandinho), Meninas de Minas Gerais (with Tony Costa and Guilherme Maia), Os carapintadas and Festa do interior (with Abel Silva), Forro do ABC (with João Santana), Monumento vivo (with Davi Morais, his son, recorded by Daniela Mercury), Acabou chorare, Preta pretinha, É ferro na boneca, De Vera, Colégio de Aplicação and Felicidade no ar (these six with Luís Galvão). Amongst others, his main interpreters are: Gal Costa, who made Festa do interior the most played song of 1982, Maria Bethânia, Simone, Fagner, Ney Matogrosso, Zizi Possi, Elba Ramalho, Marisa Monte and Daniela Mercury.
Biography of Bahian singer-songwriter Morais Moreira
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