Zuza Homem de Mello dies in 87 | Saint Paul

According to the family, the cause of death was a heart attack. The wake will be reserved only for family members due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“With great pain in my heart, I lost our dear Zuza. He died sleeping of a heart attack, after toasting all the successful projects last night. In 35 years of shared life, I was able to witness the love for this man’s life, for his work and his music. Zuza left us alone after living a full life! ”

The statement was signed by Zuza’s wife, Ercília Lobo, children and grandchildren.

José Eduardo Homem de Mello, better known as Zuza Homem de Mello, was born on September 20, 1933. Journalist, he specialized in the history of Brazilian popular music (MPB).

Zuza performed as a bass player at night until, in 1955, he dropped out of engineering to pursue music. The following year, he started in journalism, subscribing to music columns for the Folha da Noite and Folha da Manhã newspapers.

In 1957, he studied music at the Jazz School in Tanglewood, in the United States, where he took classes with Ray Brown and other musicians. Between 1957 and 1958, she studied musicology at the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Back in Brazil, in 1959, Zuza joined TV Record, where he spent about ten years working as a sound engineer for MPB programs and festivals, as well as acting as a booker in the hiring of international stars.

Between 1977 and 1988, Zuza concentrated his activity on the radio and the press, producing and presenting programs and popular music criticism for the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, as well as other publications in Brazil and abroad.

In 1997, Zuza coordinated the Encyclopedia of Brazilian Music.

Since 1958, Zuza has given lectures and courses on Brazilian Popular Music and jazz in Brazil and abroad, having also been a judge at some of the most important music festivals in Brazil.

Since 2018, Zuza has held chair 17 at the Academia Paulista de las Letras.