Arthur Verocai

Arranger

Arthur Cortes Verocai was born in Rio de Janeiro on June 17, 1945. Trained as a civil engineer, he became one of Rio’s busiest arrangers in the late 60s, writing charts for Ivan Lins, Elizeth Cardoso, Jorge Ben and others.

Arthur Verocai (1972)

His only album of the era, Arthur Verocai (Continental, 1972), mixed string arrangements with fuzz guitar, soul and MPB. It sold almost nothing and he went back to arranging and TV work.

Second life

Decades later the LP turned into a holy grail for crate diggers, with originals selling for serious money, and producers across hip hop sampled it. A 2009 Los Angeles concert, released by Mochilla as part of its Timeless series, brought him in front of that audience; he has since released Encore (2016) and Timeless (2023) and played festivals in the U.S. and Europe.