Ricardo Vilas

From 1966 a 1968, Ricardo Vilas (still as Ricardo Sá) was a member of the Momento 4 vocal quartet, together with Zé Rodrix, Maurício Maestro and David Tygel. The group accompanied Marília Medalha and Edu Lobo in "Ponteio", at the Festival da Record (1967). In 1968, participating in pro-civil rights articulations during the dictatorship he was arrested, having being one of the political prisoners freed in exchange of the American ambassador Charles Elbrick, kidnapped by a radical leftist group. Banned from Brazil, Vilas settled in France, where he formed with Teca Calazans, in 1970, the duo Teca & Ricardo, which performed from 1971 to 1981. After the amnesty promoted by the military in 1979, he returned to his country, launching Faz-de-Conta in the mid-eighties, with a selection of his themes written for the Sítio do Pica-Pau Amarelo TV Globo series. His songs and musical themes were also included in TV Globo soap operas like Roque Santeiro and Selva de Pedra. In 1989 he returned to France, launching Música Mestiça and touring Europe. From 1995 on he started to divide his activities between Rio de Janeiro and Paris. In 1998 he launched his 19th album, Bem Brasil, with 14 originals (new songs and old hits re-recorded) and the participation of Chico Buarque, Lenine, Joyce, Sá & Guarabyra, Wagner Tiso, Nana Caymmi, Zé Ramalho, Ângela Maria, Flávio Venturini, Zé Renato, his former Momento 4 mates Zé Rodrix, Maurício Maestro and David Tygel and also Didier Sustrac, along with Brazilian artists settled in Europe and virtually unknown in their country of origin like Nazaré Pereira, Loalwa Braz (from Kaoma) and the duo Les Étoiles (Rolando & Luís Antônio). ~ Alvaro Neder, Rovi