Homem de Mello was born in 1933, in São Paulo. During his youth he worked as a professional bass player in nightclubs in the city. In 1955, encouraged by his mother, he abandoned the engineering course to dedicate himself to music. The next year he started writing columns about
jazz for the newspapers
Folha da Noite and
Folha da Manhã. In 1957, he attended
Tanglewood School of Jazz, studying under
Ray Brown and other musicians. From 1957 to 1958, he studied
musicology at New York's
Juilliard School. From 1958 he began giving lectures and courses on Brazilian popular music and jazz in Brazil and abroad, having also been a judge on some of the country's most important music festivals. Back in Brazil in 1959, Zuza - as he became known in the music scene - joined
TV Record, where he stayed for about ten years. Between 1977 and 1988, he focused his activities on radio and print, producing and presenting the
Programa do Zuza, on
Rádio Jovem Pan AM; he also worked as a popular music critic for the newspaper
O Estado de S. Paulo, wrote for the magazines
Som 3,
Nova and other publications in Brazil and abroad. In 1997, he coordinated the
Enciclopédia da Música Brasileira (Encyclopedia of Brazilian Music), and in 1982, alongside
Tárik de Souza, he planned and coordinated the third edition of the collection
História da Música Popular Brasileira (History of Brazilian Popular Music), by
Editora Abril. Zuza also directed and produced music festivals and artists tours: he directed in the 1970s the series of concerts
O Fino da Música, at the
Anhembi Convention Center, in São Paulo, featuring artists like Canhoto,
Elis Regina,
Elizeth Cardoso,
João Bosco,
Ivan Lins, and
Alcione. In the 1980s, he directed the three editions of
Guarujá Summer Festival, featuring
Jackson do Pandeiro,
Patativa do Assaré,
Luiz Gonzaga,
Jorge Ben Jor,
Raul Seixas,
Djavan,
Beto Guedes and
Alceu Valença. In 1988, he produced
Milton Nascimento's Japanese tour; he also directed Milton and
Gilberto Gil in the
Basf Chrome Music concert series (1989). In 2018, he was elected for the chair n.º 17 of
Academia Paulista de Letras, replacing the Portuguese literature scholar Massaud Moisés. He was the subject of the 2019 documentary
Zuza Homem de Jazz, directed by Janaína Dalri.
Death Zuza died on 4 October 2020, aged 87, 2020, at his apartment in São Paulo, affected by a
myocardial infarction during his sleep. The previous week he finished writing the biography of musician
João Gilberto. == Books published ==