Francisco de Assis França (March 13, 1966 – February 2, 1997), better known as Chico Science, was a Brazilian singer and composer and one of the founders of the manguebeat cultural movement. He died in a car accident in 1997 in

Recife Recife ( , ) is the Federative units of Brazil, state capital of Pernambuco, Brazil, on the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of South America. It is the largest urban area within both the North Region, Brazil, North and the Northeast R ...

, Pernambuco, at the age of 30.

Biography

Francisco de Assis França was born in the Rio Doce neighbourhood of

Olinda Olinda () is a historic city in Pernambuco, Brazil, in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It is located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, in the Recife metropolitan area, Metropolitan Region of Recife, the state ca ...

, Pernambuco, in Brazil's Northeast Region. As a little boy he would sell crabs that he caught himself in the city's mangrove swamps. He became the lead singer and major creative driving force of the groundbreaking Mangue Bit band called Chico Science & Nação Zumbi (CSNZ). Influenced by such musicians as

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

Grandmaster Flash Joseph Robert Saddler (born January 1, 1958), known by his stage name Grandmaster Flash, is a Barbadian-American musician and DJ. He created a DJ technique called the Quick Mix Theory. This technique serviced the break-dancer and the rapper by el ...

and

Kurtis Blow Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), known professionally by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapping , rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Walker is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major rec ...

, their music cleverly fused

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, and

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

with

maracatu The term maracatu denotes any of several performance genres found in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil. Main types of maracatu include '' maracatu nação'' (nation-style maracatu) and ''maracatu rural'' (rural-style maracatu). Maracatu Nação Ma ...

and other traditional rhythms of Brazil's Northeast. World music critics found his music "original and distinctive of his region." Chico had a powerful stage presence that was compared by some to that of

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

. Around 1991, Chico Science, along with singer

Fred 04 Fred Rodrigues Montenegro (born in Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Pernambuco, on July 11, 1965), known by the stage name Fred 04, is the leader, singer, guitarist and cavaquinho player of Brazilian band Mundo Livre S/A. He is the co-author, along with ...

of the band

Mundo Livre S/A Mundo Livre S/A is a Brazilian mangue bit band, formed in 1984 in Recife, Pernambuco. It is also one of the founders of that musical style, which became popular in the 1990s. Fred Zero Quatro, the band's singer, was one of the authors of Carang ...

, founded the Mangue Bit cultural movement in response to dire economic and cultural stagnation in Recife and Olinda. CSNZ made their US debut at New York's Central Park

Summerstage The City Parks Foundation is an independent nonprofit organization that provides free arts, sports, education, and community-building programs in parks across New York City. Founded in 1989, the Foundation operates in more than 400 parks, recre ...

in 1995, opening for

Gilberto Gil Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (; born 26 June 1942), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician, known for both his musical innovation and political activism. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Ministry of Culture (Brazil), Minister of ...

, with whom he collaborated during the encore. While in NY, they also performed additional shows at

CBGB's CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in the East Village in Manhattan, New York City. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters ''CBGB'' were for ''Country, Bluegrass, Blue ...

, SOB's and at

Bryant Park Bryant Park is a , privately managed public park in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan. It is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) and between 40th Street (Manhattan), 40th and 42 ...

as part of the JVC Jazz Festival, on a bill with the

Ohio Players Ohio Players are an American funk band, most popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their songs "Fire" and " Love Rollercoaster", and for their erotic album covers that featured nude or nearly nude women. Many of the women were models f ...

. Chico Science & Nação Zumbi toured several times in Europe and brought massive attention to the new generation of Brazilian artists in the 1990s. With only two full albums released during his lifetime, 'Da Lama Ao Caos' ('From Mud To Chaos) and 'Afrociberdelia', his influence and vision became the foundation to a whole new generation of musicians in Brazil. At the time of his death, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' said he was "widely hailed as the future of Brazilian music." The Governor of the Brazilian state of

Pernambuco Pernambuco ( , , ) is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.5 million people as of 2024, it is the List of Brazilian states by population, ...

declared three days of mourning. In 1996, Chico Science contributed ''Maracatu Atômico'' along with

Nação Zumbi Nação Zumbi (formerly Chico Science & Nação Zumbi) is a Brazilian band formed by Chico Science. They have been hailed as one of the most important groups to come out of the manguebeat movement in the 1990s. The musicians of the group continu ...

to the AIDS-Benefit Album

Red Hot + Rio Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

produced by the

Red Hot Organization ''Red Hot Organization'' (RHO) is a non-profit, 501(c) 3, international organization with goals to promote diversity through equal access to healthcare through pop culture. Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors ...

have continued to record and tour internationally after Chico's death.

Death

Chico Science died in a car accident on February 2, 1997. He lost control of his

Fiat Uno The Fiat Uno is a supermini manufactured and marketed by Fiat. Launched in 1983, the Uno was produced over a single generation (with an intermediate facelift, 1989) in three and five-door hatchback body styles until 1995 in Europe — and un ...

and hit a side light post after another car cut him off. He was rescued alive but he did not survive his injuries. He was buried on February 3 in Cemitério de Santo Amaro located in

. 10 years after his death, his family was compensated by

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A., commonly known as simply Fiat ( , ; ), is an Italian automobile manufacturer. It became a part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2014 and, in 2021, became a subsidiary of Stellantis through its Italian division, Stellant ...

due to a failure in the seatbelt that could have saved his life.

Legacy

In 2008, Rolling Stone Brasil ranked Chico Science as the 16th greatest Brazilian artist in their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time in Brazilian music

Discography

*1994: '' Da lama ao caos'' *1996: ''Afrociberdelia'' *1998: ''CSNZ'' (posthumous)

References

Sneed, P. M. (2019). The Coexistentialism of Chico Science and Brazil's Manguebeat. Latin American Research Review, 54(3), 651–664. DOI: http://doi.org/10.25222/larr.451

External links

Channel Chico ScienceMemorial Chico Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Science, Chico 1966 births 1997 deaths Brazilian rock musicians People from Olinda Road incident deaths in Brazil 20th-century Brazilian male singers 20th-century Brazilian singers Singers from Pernambuco