Composer, Arranger, Guitar (b. 1945, Rio de Janeiro)

Born Arthur Côrtes Verocai on 17 June 1945 in Rio de Janeiro, Arthur Verocai began his professional music career scoring the theatrical production É a maior and writing his first orchestral arrangements. He quickly became a sought-after arranger for Brazilian stars, working on Jorge Ben, Ivan Lins, Gal Costa, Elis Regina and Marcos Valle. As house arranger at Continental Records, his work impressed the label president, who invited him to produce his own album.

Released in 1972, Verocai's self-titled debut featured a 30-piece orchestra, vocalists Célia, Carlos Dafe, and Oberdan from Banda Black Rio, plus percussion from Pedro Santos and Paulo Moura on sax. He described it as samba mixed with soul, influenced by Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Wes Montgomery, Debussy, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Chicago, and Frank Zappa. The album's visionary psychedelic orchestral arrangements contrasted with Tim Maia's Brazilian soul and have been compared to American arrangers David Axelrod and Charles Stepney. Largely ignored in Brazil upon release, Verocai stopped composing for 30 years, switching to arranging jingles. His work has been sampled by MF DOOM, Ludacris, Common, Little Brother, Action Bronson, and Curren$y, and cited as an influence by TV on the Radio, Cut Chemist, Madlib, and BadBadNotGood. Recent collaborations include BadBadNotGood, Hiatus Kaiyote, and Gal Costa.