Noel de Medeiros Rosa was a Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

, singer, and guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

/banjo

Banjo

In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...

 player. One of the greatest names in Brazilian popular music, Noel gave a new twist to samba

Samba

Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...

, combining its Afro-Brazilian

Afro-Brazilian

In Brazil, the term "preto" is one of the five categories used by the Brazilian Census, along with "branco" , "pardo" , "amarelo" and "indígena"...

 roots with a more urban, witty language and making it a vehicle for ironic social commentary.

Noel Rosa was born in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

 into a middle-class family of the Vila Isabel

Vila Isabel

Vila Isabel is a neighbourhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil....

 neighbourhood. An accident with a forceps

Forceps

Forceps or forcipes are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Forceps are used when fingers are too large to grasp small objects or when many objects need to be held at one time while the hands are used to perform a task. The term 'forceps' is used almost exclusively...

 at his birth caused the disfigured chin

Chin

In the human anatomy, the chin is the lowermost part of the face.It is formed by the lower front of the mandible.People show a wide variety of chin structures. See Cleft chin....

 that would haunt him all his short life. He learned to play the bandolim while still a teenager, and soon moved on to the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

. Although Noel started medicine

Medicine

Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

 studies, he gave most of his attention to music and would spend whole nights in bars drinking and playing with other samba musicians. Together with Braguinha

Braguinha (composer)

Carlos Alberto Ferreira Braga , commonly known as Braguinha or João de Barro , was a Brazilian songwriter and occasional singer. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, where he lived all his life...

 and Almirante he formed the musical group "Bando de Tangarás". Soon he started composing sambas, and had his breakthrough with "Com que roupa?", one of the biggest hits of 1931 and the first in a string of memorable compositions. Noel was a good friend of Cartola

Cartola

Angenor de Oliveira, known as Cartola , was a Brazilian singer, composer and poet considered to be a major figure in the development of samba.Cartola composed, alone or with partners, more than 500 songs.-Biography:...

, who have received and trated him after some drinking nights several times in his house on the Mangueira's slum.

In the early 1930s Noel Rosa started to show signs of a tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

. He would occasionally leave for treatment on mountain resorts, but always ended up coming back to Rio and the nightlife

Nightlife

Nightlife is the collective term for any entertainment that is available and more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning...

. In 1934 he married Lindaura Martins, a seventeen-year old neighbour, but that didn't keep him from having affairs with other women. Noel was a heavy smoker, and most of his photographs show him with a cigarette hanging from his lower lip. By the later 1930s his health had seriously deteriorated, and he died in 1937 at the age of 26.

Compositions

Noel Rosa wrote around 250 compositions, including:

• "A.E.I.O.U." (with Lamartine Babo, 1931)
• "Até amanhã" (1932)
• "Cem mil réis" (with Vadico, 1936)
• "Com que roupa?" (1929)
• "Conversa de botequim" (with Vadico, 1935)
• "Coração" (1932)
• "Cor de cinza" (1933)
• "Dama do cabaré" (1934)
• "De babado" (with João Mina, 1936)
• "É bom parar" (with Rubens Soares, 1936)
• "Feitiço da Vila" (with Vadico, 1936)
• "Feitio de oração" (with Vadico, 1933)
• "Filosofia" (with André Filho, 1933)
• "Fita amarela" (1932)
• "Gago apaixonado" (1930)
• "João Ninguém" (1935)
• "Minha viola" (1929)
• "Mulher indigesta"
• "Não tem tradução" (1933)
• "O orvalho vem caindo" (with Kid Pepe, 1933)
• "O X do problema" (1936)
• "Palpite infeliz" (1935)
• "Para me livrar do mal" (with Ismael Silva, 1932)
• "Pastorinhas" (with João de Barro
  Braguinha (composer)
  Carlos Alberto Ferreira Braga , commonly known as Braguinha or João de Barro , was a Brazilian songwriter and occasional singer. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, where he lived all his life...
  
  , 1934)
• "Pela décima vez" (1935)
• "Pierrô apaixonado" (with Heitor dos Prazeres, 1935)
• "Positivismo" (with Orestes Barbosa, 1933)
• "Pra que mentir" (with Vadico, 1937)
• "Provei" (with Vadico, 1936)
• "Quando o samba acabou (1933)
• "Quem dá mais?" (1930)
• "Quem ri melhor" (1936)
• "São coisas nossas" (1936)
• "Tarzan, o filho do alfaiate" (1936)
• "Três apitos" (1933)
• "Último desejo" (1937)
• "Você só...mente" (with Hélio Rosa, 1933)
• "Mama de farinha" (with Hélio Rosa, 1943)

Books

• No Tempo de Noel Rosa. (Almirante
  Almirante
  Almirante is a city in the Bocas del Toro Province of the Republic of Panama. Its name is Spanish for Admiral.-Tourist Use:For travelers, Almirante is mainly used as a jumping off point for land travel to other cities on the mainland, Panama or to Costa Rica. An approximately 30-minute water taxi...
  
  )
• Noel Rosa: Uma Biografia. (João Máximo e Carlos Didier)
• Noel Rosa: Língua e Estilo (Castellar de Carvalho e Antonio Martins de Araujo)
• Songbook Noel Rosa 1, 2 e 3 (Almir Chediak)
• Noel Rosa: Para Ler e Ouvir (Eduardo Alcantara de Vasconcellos
• O Jovem Noel Rosa (Guca Domenico)
• O Estudante do Coração (Luis Carlos de Morais Junior)