Carlos Paredes

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Carlos Paredes (16 February 1925 – 23 July 2004) was a famous Portuguese guitarist and composer, known as one of the greatest players of the Portuguese guitar. He was born in Coimbra into a family of guitar players and was taught by his father, Artur Paredes. The family moved to Lisbon around 1934. Paredes started playing guitar at age four and began performing with his father on stage by age nine.

In the 1940s he worked in public service while building his music career. He released his first solo EP in 1957 with Fernando Alvim, beginning a partnership that lasted more than 20 years. In the 1960s he wrote many film soundtracks, including Os Verdes Anos (1963), which contains his well-known piece “Canção Verdes Anos.” His first studio album, Guitarra Portuguesa, came out in 1967. That year he also performed with Amália Rodrigues in Paris; she admired his playing and invited him to join her touring band, but he chose to remain a solo artist.

Paredes also played a role in public life. He worked at the radiography archive of the Hospital de São José in Lisbon starting in 1949 and kept that job for many years. He joined the Portuguese Communist Party in 1958, at a time when the party was illegal, and was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. He reportedly kept composing music in his head while in prison. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, he was seen as a national hero and was allowed to return to his previous work.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Paredes released several important albums and worked on theater pieces. Notable works include Movimento Perpétuo (1971), Espelho de Sons (1987), and Asas Sobre o Mundo (1989). He also recorded Dialogues (1990) with American bassist Charlie Haden. His last concert was in October 1993 in Lisbon; he then stopped playing due to illness.

Paredes died in Lisbon in 2004 after a period of illness. The Portuguese government declared a day of national mourning in his honor. He is remembered as a national treasure of the Portuguese guitar, often called “the master of the Portuguese guitar” and “the man with a thousand fingers.” He was married twice, to Ana Maria Napoleão Franco and later to Cecília de Melo, and had six children. In 1992 he was made Commander of the Military Order of Saint James of the Sword. The Carlos Paredes Prize, an award for Portuguese musicians, is named after him.