Almir Sater

One of the most accomplished players of his native country’s 10-string viola caipira, Brazilian singer-songwriter and actor Almir Eduardo Melke Sater (November 14, 1956) achieved widespread fame through his seamless concoction of traditional Brazilian music with blues, country, and bluegrass. Born in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso, Sater moved to Rio de Janeiro in his 20s to study law but soon dropped out to pursue a career in music. He then moved back to Campo Grande, where he formed the duo Lupe and Lampião, and studied the viola caipira under the wing of Tião Carreiro. In 1979, Sater relocated to São Paulo and joined Tetê Espíndola’s Tetê e o Lírio Selvagem, while also lending his talent to the work of Diana Pequeno. His first album, Estradeiro, came out in 1981 and featured contributions by Tetê Espíndola and Paulo Simões, who would play a greater role on Sater’s sophomore effort, Doma, released in 1982. Sater’s creative partnership with Simões continued on Comitiva Esperança, a 1985 documentary that explored the isolated region of Pantanal, and an album titled Almir Sater Instrumental, released that same year. 1986 marked the beginning of his collaboration with composer Renato Teixeira, which resulted in the LP Cria. Following an appearance at Rio’s 1989 Free Jazz Festival, Sater travelled to Nashville to record Rasta Bonito, an album heavily informed by country music. Throughout the 90s, he launched his acting career on the soap operas Pantanal and A História de Ana Raio e Zé Trovão, which exposed him to a wider audience, and released the albums Terra de Sonhos (1994), Almir Sater no Pantanal (1996), and Caminhos me Levem (1997). After a ten-year hiatus, Sater returned with 7 Sinais in 2007 and rekindled his relationship with Teixeira on AR (2015), winning a Latin Grammy for Best Brazilian Roots/Regional Album - an achievement they repeated on 2018’s +AR.

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