Zeca Afonso

Early life

José Afonso was born in Aveiro on 2 August 1929, at 10:30 am.

In 1930, his parents travelled to Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time, where his father had been placed as a judge in the city of Silva Porto (present-day Kuito). José Afonso stayed at Aveiro, in a house near the "Fonte das Cinco Bicas", due to some health problems with his aunt Gigé and his uncle Xico, who called himself "republican and anticlerical". In 1933 Zeca travelled to Angola at his mother's request. On the ship Zeca met a missionary who became his companion during the voyage. José Afonso stayed for three years in Angola, where he began his primary education.

In 1936, he returned to Aveiro and in 1937 he travelled for the second time, this time to Mozambique, another Portuguese overseas territory in East Africa, where his parents were then living, with his brother and sister, João and Mariazinha.

He returned to Portugal in 1938, this time to the house of his uncle Filomeno, mayor of the town of Belmonte. There he finished the fourth grade. His uncle, a fierce fascist supporter, made him a join the "Mocidade Portuguesa", a paramilitary style political indoctrination youth organization conceived by the right-wing regime of Salazar and the Estado Novo, to provide regime aligned cadres and future leaders. Zeca came to regard those years as among the worst of his life.

He went to Coimbra in 1940 in order to continue his studies. He studied in the D. João III high school and lived with his aunt Avrilete. His family went from Mozambique to East Timor, also a Portuguese overseas territory at that time, where his father continued his job as a judge. Mariazinha went with them while his brother João returned to Portugal. With the occupation of Timor by the Japanese, José Afonso received no news from his parents for three years, until the end of World War II in 1945.

Azulejo in homage at the house in Coimbra, where José Afonso, O Zeca, lived. Known as the troubadour of liberty.

University years

Soon after enrolling at university, Zeca started singing his first songs as a bicho (a non human ugly or scary creature), a traditional rank of the University of Coimbra for caloiros (1st year rookies). Thus, José Afonso being a freshman, become known as a bicho-cantor (singing creature), which earned him the right to not become rapado (head shaved) by the organized troups (frats) of older students (sofmore and seniors) who were guardians of the university's traditions.

From 1946 to 1948 he worked to finish his freshman year, as two prior exam attempts failed due to his chaotic lifestyle spent among the older students. He met Maria Amália de Oliveira, whom he married secretly due to his parents' opposition. He traveled with some of the most important university musical groups, such as Orfeon Académico de Coimbra, and played football for the Associação Académica de Coimbra. In 1949 he started studying History and Philosophy at Coimbra University.

In January 1953, his first son José Manuel was born and later on, his first recordings were released, of which no copies remain today.

Between 1953 and 1955, he served compulsory military service and was stationed in Macau, by then still Portuguese territory, but was sent home due to health problems. After returning from Macau, Zeca was stationed at Coimbra until completing military service. There, he experienced many economic difficulties and divorced his wife. Discharged from military service and with two young children, son José Manuel and daughter Helena that had been born in 1954, Zeca completed his studies managing to average 11 points out of 20 (55%), for a thesis about Jean-Paul Sartre.

Early political action

In 1956, he released his first record, Fados de Coimbra. In 1956 and 1957, he became a teacher and worked in the south of Portugal. Due to his financial problems he sent his children to the Portuguese overseas territory of Mozambique in 1958, where his parents were at the time. In that year he became enthralled by Humberto Delgado's presidential campaign; Delgado lost due to massive electoral fraud perpetrated by the authoritarian Estado Novo regime. In 1959, he started singing in his trademark musical style, coloured with political and social connotations, touring with many popular groups around the country, gradually becoming a favourite among the working class and the rural population. In 1960 his fourth record, Balada do Outono (Autumn Ballad), was released. From 1961 to 1962 he paid close attention to the pro-democracy student strikes and demonstrations demanding the end of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, which were brutally repressed by the police. He continued releasing many of his songs and introduced important new guitar arrangements. He played in Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden, in a fado guitar group with Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Niza, Jorge Godinho, Durval Moreirinhas and the singer Esmeralda Amoedo. In May 1964, José Afonso played in the Musical Society Workers' Brotherhood in Grândola, where he found the inspiration to compose the song "Grândola, Vila Morena", which would become the signal (broadcast by the national radio channel) for the start of the Carnation Revolution in April 1974. Also in 1964 the album Baladas e Canções was released. From 1964 to 1967, José Afonso was in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) and Beira, Mozambique, with his second wife Zélia, where he reunited with his children. In his last two years in the overseas province, he taught in Beira and composed music for the Bertolt Brecht play The Exception and The Rule. In 1965 his daughter Joana was born and by 1967, marked by the colonial reality and the Portuguese Colonial War returns to Lisbon. However, he left his older son, José Manuel, with his grandparents in Mozambique. Back in Portugal, José Afonso took up a secondary school teacher position in Setúbal, where he developed a severe health crisis which left him hospitalized for 20 days. After receiving hospital discharge, he found out that he had been expelled from public school teaching because of his leftist political ideals and the regime censors considered his songs highly subversive. His book Cantares de José Afonso (José Afonso's songs) was published. The Portuguese Communist Party leadership invited him to become a party member but Zeca refused. In that year he signed a contract with the Orfeu label, which would record 70% of his works. Dismissed from the government teaching job, he became a private tutor for some students and started singing more regularly with popular groups from the south bank of the Tagus river, Margem Sul do Tejo, a fiercely Communist supporting region that even before the revolution had strong popular local movements and associations and to this day, remains a Communist Party stronghold. For Christmas, Zeca in collaboration with Rui Pato, released the album Cantares do Andarilho, the first album recorded for Orfeu. His contract was very special one, for he was paid 15,000 escudos per month, a princely sum at the time, on condition that he recorded an album per year.

Anti-regime activities

In 1969, with the replacement of hardliner António de Oliveira Salazar by the more moderate Marcelo Caetano as head of the Estado Novo regime, the nation got a slight taste of democracy, such as permission to rebuild a democratic Labour Union movement. José Afonso joined the movement and supported it by all the means he could while also taking part in the second wave of student rebellion against the regime in the university town of Coimbra. That year, the single Menina dos Olhos Tristes and the Contos Velhos Rumos Novos album were released. Best album for 1969 was awarded and again for his work in 1970 and 1971. For the first time on a Zeca album, an instrument other than the guitar was used. His fourth and last son, Pedro, was born.

In 1970, the album Traz Outro Amigo Também (Bring Another Friend Too) was recorded in London at the Pye studios and later on released. It was the first album without Rui Pato, who had been forbidden to travel by the regime's political police. On 21 March the Portuguese press gave Zeca an award for his "high quality work as singer and composer and for his decisive influence upon Portuguese popular music". He participated in an international festival in Cuba and at the end of 1971, the famous album Cantigas do Maio (Songs of May), recorded near Paris, in the Château d'Hérouville studios, was released. This album is generally considered the best album of his career. In 1972, the album titled Eu Vou Ser Como a Toupeira (I Will Be Like the Mole), was recorded in Madrid at Cellada studios.

In 1973, José Afonso continued his "pilgrimage", singing all over Portugal. Many of his appearances were forcibly cancelled by the PIDE/DGS. In April he was arrested and sentenced to 20 days in Caxias prison (a facility used mostly to jail political prisoners) until the end of May. In the prison he wrote the poem Era Um Redondo Vocábulo. For Christmas, he released the album Venham Mais Cinco, recorded in Paris and on which José Mário Branco collaborated. Janine de Waleyne from the Blue Stars of France and a prominent vocalist in French chanson, guested on the title track. On 29 March 1974, there was a full house at the Coliseu in Lisbon, for José Afonso, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Jorge Letria, Manuel Freire, José Barata Moura, Fernando Tordo, and many others, who ended the concert by singing "Grândola, Vila Morena". Some of the conspiring officers behind the revolutionary movement that in April would take part in the Carnation Revolution and the MFA, were in the audience and chose "Grândola" as the anthem for the Revolution. A month later, on 25 April, the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a nearly bloodless military coup and the album Coro dos Tribunais (Courthouse Chorus) recorded in London, again at Pye studios with musical arrangements by Fausto, was released shortly thereafter. The album includes two Brechtian songs, composed in Mozambique in the period between 1964 and 1967: "Coro dos Tribunais" and "Eu Marchava de Dia e de Noite".

Revolutionary period

Monument in homage to Zeca in Grândola

From 1974 to 1975 he became directly involved in the popular revolutionary movements. The PREC (Ongoing Revolutionary Process) became his passion. He performed on 11 March 1975 (the day of a failed coup led by António de Spínola) in the RALIS (a leftist military stronghold) for the soldiers. Zeca established a collaboration with the extreme-left movement LUAR. LUAR released his single "Viva o Poder Popular" (Hail to the People's Power) with "Foi na Cidade do Sado" on the B-side. In Italy, the revolutionary organizations Lotta Continua, Il Manifesto and Avanguardia Operaria released the album República, recorded in Rome on 30 September and 1 October. The money received from the sales of the album went to support the striking workers of the newspaper República. The album is almost unknown in Portugal and includes the songs "Para Não Dizer Que Não Falei de Flores", "Se os Teus Olhos se Vendessem", "Foi no Sábado Passado", "Canta Camarada", "Eu Hei-de Ir Colher Macela", "O Pão Que Sobra à Riqueza", "Os Vampiros", "Senhora do Almortão", "Letra para Um Hino" and "Ladainha do Arcebispo".

In 1976 he supported Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho's presidential candidacy. Otelo was an important commander of the 25 April military operations, and Zeca supported him again in 1980. He released the album Com as Minhas Tamanquinhas.

The album Enquanto Há Força, released in 1978, again with Fausto, shows some of Zeca's concerns about colonialism and imperialism and is also a critique of the Catholic Church.

In 1979 the album Fura Fura was released with the help of the popular artist Júlio Pereira. It contains many songs that were meant for the theater. He participated in the Anti-Eurovision Festival in Brussels.

Zeca's last years

In 1981, after two years of silence, he returned to Coimbra with his album Fados de Coimbra e Outras Canções. He played in Paris at the Théâtre de la Ville.

In 1982 he started to develop the first symptoms of the severe disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (motor neurone disease, or Lou Gehrig's disease in the US). He played in Bruges at the Printemps Festival.

On 23 January 1983, Zeca, weakened by the disease, played with some difficulty in a huge show with a full house at the Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisbon, with Octávio Sérgio, António Sérgio, Lopes de Almeida, Durval Moreirinhas, Rui Pato, Fausto, Júlio Pereira, Guilherme Inês, Rui Castro, Rui Júnior, Sérgio Mestre and Janita Salomé. At that show the live album Ao Vivo no Coliseu was recorded. After that, José Afonso performed one last concert, on 25 May 1983, at the Coliseu in Oporto.

At the end of 1983 he released Como Se Fora Seu Filho, a political testemonial. It contained the following songs: "Papuça", "Utopia", "A Nau de António Faria", "Canção da Paciência", "O País Vai de Carrinho", "Canarinho", "Eu Dizia", "Canção do Medo", "Verdade e Mentira" and "Altos Altentes". The city of Coimbra awarded him its Golden Medal. "Thanks Zeca, this is your house", the mayor, Mendes Silva, told him. "I don't want to become an institution, but I feel very grateful for the homage", Zeca answered. After that the president, Ramalho Eanes, wanted to give him the Order of Liberty, but Zeca refused to fill in the papers.

In 1983 José Afonso was reinstated in his official teaching position, whence he had been expelled in 1968; he was sent to Azeitão. His sickness started spreading and his health got worse.

In 1985 his last album, Galinhas do Mato, was released. Zeca was unable to sing all the songs on the album, being replaced by Luís Represas ("Agora"), Helena Vieira ("Tu Gitana"), Janita Salomé ("Moda do Entrudo", "Tarkovsky" and "Alegria da Criação"), José Mário Branco ("Década de Salomé", duet with Zeca), Né Ladeiras ("Benditos") and Marta Salomé ("Galinhas do Mato"). Musical arrangements are by Júlio Pereira and Fausto. The album also included "Escandinávia Bar-Fuzeta" and "À Proa".

In 1986 he supported the presidential candidacy of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, a progressive Catholic woman; she was not elected.

José Afonso died in Setúbal at 3 am on 23 February 1987, aged 57, a victim of the sclerosis that had been diagnosed in 1982. His funeral in Setúbal was attended by 30,000 people. The procession took two hours to cover 1300 meters. His coffin was covered with a red flag with no symbols, as he had wished, and it was borne by, among others, Sérgio Godinho, Júlio Pereira, José Mário Branco, Luís Cília and Francisco Fanhais.

Posthumous releases

• 1987 – Os Vampiros, Edisco
• 1993 – Zeca Afonso no Coliseu, Strauss
• 1996 - De Capa e Batina, Movieplay
• 1997 – Baladas e Canções, EMI (2nd edition)
• 2001 – José Afonso, Movieplay
• 2007 – As Últimas Gravações, CNM