Roberto Menescal

Who is Roberto Menescal?

Roberto Menescal is a Brazilian composer, producer, guitarist/vocalist, important to the founding of bossa nova. In many of his songs there are references to things related to the sea, including his best-known composition "O Barquinho". He is also known for work with Carlos Lyra, Nara Leao, Wanda Sa, Ale Vanzella, and many others. Menescal has performed in a variety of Latin music mediums, including Brazilian pop, Música Popular Brasileira, Bossa nova and Samba. He was nominated for a Latin Grammy for his work with his son's bossa group Bossacucanova in 2002 and will receive the "2013 Latin Recording Academy Special Awards" in Las Vegas in November 2013.

The composer of bossa nova classics like "O Barquinho," "Ah, Se Eu Pudesse," "Errinho à Tôa," "Nós e o Mar," "Rio," "Você," and "Vagamente," Roberto Menescal started his professional career in 1957 as Sylvia Telles' sideman in a tour around Brazil. In 1958, he opened a guitar school in Copacabana with Carlos Lyra, having as his pupils Nara Leão and his sister Danuza Leão. In the same year, he formed, with Luís Carlos Vinhas, João Mário, Henrique, and Bebeto, the Conjunto Roberto Menescal, one of the first instrumental groups of bossa nova. The group accompanied Dorival Caymmi, Vinícius de Moraes, Billy Blanco, Maysa, and Telles. Also in 1958, he participated, with Telles, Carlos Lyra, and other artists, in a show at the Clube Hebraica, when the words "bossa nova" were used for the first time to advertise the event. Having taken part with his group in the recording of Garotos da Bossa Nova in 1959, he participated in the I Festival de Samba Session at the Teatro de Arena theater of the School of Architecture at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. Such informal venues were important vehicles for bossa nova among the middle-class university people who were more inclined to absorb and disseminate it, and Menescal was instrumental for the promotion of such concerts in 1959, 1960, and 1961. In 1959, he had his first recorded composition, "Jura de Pombo", by Alaíde Costa. His "O Barquinho", a bossa nova classic, was simultaneously recorded by Maysa, Perry Ribeiro, and Paulinho Nogueira in 1960. In 1962, he accompanied Maysa in her Argentinean tour and, with Eumir Deodato's group, he performed in Marlene's program on TV Rio, having been hired for two years with his own group to back up artists on that TV station.