BIO
Railway Station, Jundiai, 1960s
Background in Sao Paulo State
Claudio Nucci was born in Jundiai, Sao Paulo State, on June 9, 1956. His contact with music started very early in childhood, by influence of his parents, who grew up in families with special interest for music.
His musical influences were built by a mixture of intuition and the songs he was used to listen, including country-side music from São Paulo and Minas Gerais states, waltzes played or sang by his grandparents, popular Brazilian songs and classical music. This background was further influenced by songs presented in the 1960s TV music festivals, performed by songwriters like Chico Buarque, Edu Lobo, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. The atmosphere generated by these festivals pushed him to learn more about this new Brazilian music that was emerging. Listening was not enough, and he started playing acoustic guitar. He wrote his first song at the age of 12 in the city of Campinas, where he lived until 15 years old. At this time he moved to Rio de Janeiro with his parents and brothers.
Semante and Cantares gropus, 1970s
Music initiation in Rio de Janeiro
Living in Rio, Claudio expanded his influences by listening to other great players and composers such as Tom Jobim, Dorival Caymmi, Carlos Lyra, Paulinho da Viola, Francis Hime, Joyce, Dori Caymmi, and Milton Nascimento, with his "Clube da Esquina". These influences were of great importance to build his style.
During high-school, he participated in festivals, composing and performing from 1972 to 1975 at Colegio Rio de Janeiro. In 1976 he performed solo at the first time in a theatre show, together with Zé Luís Oliveira. Mú Carvalho, Cláudio Infante, Mauro Assumpção and Fernando Barroso.
In 1977 he founded the group "Semente", with Zé Luís Oliveira, Mário Adnet, Cláudio Infante, Márcio Resende, Paulinho Soledade and Ricardo Mará. During its short but intense existence, some performances of the Semente Group had the participation of other emerging musicians from Rio, such as Alberto Rosenblit, Mú Carvalho, Candinho, and the ex-members of the "Vímana" Group, Lobão and Lulu Santos. Similarly, Claudio performed in some presentations of the “Cantares” Group, from his partners Zé Renato and Juca Filho.
Boca Livre Quartet Original, 1978
Professional Carreer
In 1978, together with Zé Renato, Maurício Maestro and David Tygel, he created the vocal quartet Boca Livre. The release of the first album was very successful. In 1980 he recorded his first solo song, “Quero Quero”, released by EMI Odeon. In 198X he left the quartet and released three solo albuns: “Claudio Nucci”, in 198X, "Volta e Vai", in 1983, and "Melhor de Três", in 1984.
In 1985 he recorded an album together with Zé Renato ("Pelo Sim, Pelo Não"), and in 1988 he joined Zé Renato, Ricardo Silveira, Zé Nogueira, Marcos Ariel, Jurim Moreira and João Baptista to create the “Banda Zil”, with the release of one album and live performance in various theaters. The group rejoined recently to celebrate 30 years of the release of the album, playing a very up-to-date music, with a mixture of vocals and instrumental performances.
In 19XX, Claudio Nucci released the album “Ê Boi”, with the group “Nós e Voz”, with a re-visiting of old popular Brazilian regional songs. Then, he released the album “Casa da Lua Cheia", with a repertoire composed mostly by his songs, "Ao Mestre, Com Carinho", revisiting the repertoire of Dorival Caymmi, "Noel, Nelson & Nucci", with songs composed by Noel Rosa, Nelson Cavaquinho and himself, and "Claudio Nucci Revisita Caymmi", again with songs by Caymmi.
Between 2000 and 2003 he rejoined the Boca Livre quartet, participating in the CD "Mundo", by Ruben Blades. As invited guest, Nucci participated in various álbuns of other artists, including Edu Lobo and Chico Buarque, Guinga, SongBooks of Dorival Caymmi, Tom Jobim, Ary Barroso, Djavan and Chico Buarque, as well as in the Grammy 1993 awarded album “Brasileiro”, by Sergio Mendes.
As composer, Nucci has his songs recorded by various singers, including Nana Caymmi, Emilio Santiago, Simone, Eliane Elias, Roupa Nova, Cesar Camargo Mariano and Zizi Possi.