Moacir Santos (1926 – 2006) would have turned 100 years old today, Sunday, July 26th Reproduction / Cover of the album 'Coisas' (1965) ? ANALYSIS ? It was on July 26th, 1926 that Moacir Santos came into the world, in Flores (PE), one of the 17 municipalities that make up the Sertão do Pajeú in the countryside of Pernambuco. It was from his experience in this semi-arid land that the composer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and conductor began to extract the black gold from Brazil's rich music. It was while working with local philharmonic bands that Moacir Santos charted a consecrated route that passed through the city of Rio de Janeiro (RJ) – the city where he arrived in 1948, at the height of the radio era – and took him to the United States, a jazz nation that welcomed the Pernambuco maestro who died 20 years ago, on August 6, 2006, in Pasadena, a city in the state of California (USA). Today, Sunday, July 26, Moacir Santos would have turned 100 years old – which led to tributes throughout this month of July such as the 1st Ouro Negro do Pajeú Festival – Festi'Ouro, held yesterday in Flores (PE) to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the most illustrious son of the city of Pernambuco. Yes, Moacir Santos is recognized as a genius in niches of Brazilian music, being praised above all by instrumentalists. However, strictly speaking, the general public is unaware of it. Architect of “Coisas”, a 1965 album considered one of the fundamental titles of Brazilian discography due to the high level of novelty of the original themes, Moacir Santos was hailed by Vinicius de Moraes (1913 – 1980) in verse of “Samba da benção” (1966). “A blessing, Moacir Santos, you who are not just one, you are so many”, praised the poet, alluding to the fact that Santos has established himself as a master in the fusion of rhythms, having moved from folklore to jazz in a trajectory in which popular music often overlaps with classical music. Black gold was mined throughout a professional life that began between the states of Pernambuco and Paraíba, with the Northeast being the first north of the artist's work. However, it was working in Rio de Janeiro (RJ) as a saxophonist and arranger for the hegemonic Rádio Nacional throughout the 1950s, that the maestro refined the mixed sound that, years later, Santos would synthesize in the aforementioned album “Coisas”, an album based on African rhythmic matrices. Student of masters of Brazilian classical music such as Hans-Joachim Koellreuter (1915 – 2005) and Cesar Guerra-Peixe (1914 – 1993), but also teacher of musicians like Baden Powell (1937 – 2000) and João Donato (1934 – 2023), Moacir Santos left music anchored in the Afro-Brazilian universe. Africa was the base, a north from which the multi-instrumentalist never strayed, but Brazil supported an innovative rhythmic bridge, based on baião, maracatu and samba, among other national musical genres. And everything was amalgamated with the freedom of jazz, music without borders, and with erudite refinement and rigor, the result of the training of this artist dedicated to creating arrangements for orchestras and big bands. Although Brazilian heritage, the already centenarian Moacir Santos was a world musician.