Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist Salomão Borges Filho, known professionally as Lô Borges, has died at the age of 73. According to Mix Vale, the artist died today in Belo Horizonte, where he was recently hospitalized for a medication-related infection.
Borges was one of the founding members of Clube da Esquina, a group of musicians that originated in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Growing up, he and other boys would gather at the crossroads of Divinópolis street and Paraisópolis street in the neighborhood of Belo Horizonte’s Santa Tereza, playing music and talking about the Beatles, MPB, and jazz. Borges was only 19 when he took part in Milton Nascimento’s seminal Clube da Esquina album, and wrote the tracks ‘O Trem Azul’, ‘Tudo Que Você Podia Ser’, and ‘Nuvem Cigana’.
“The story of this club, which was full of complete unknowns who all became famous later because nobody worked in music, was that I was the party organizer, me and Yé [Borges], because I played guitar and Yé also played guitar, so there was always music,” Borges recalled in an interview. “Back then, there wasn’t this thing of having equipment to play music, we just played guitar to liven up the parties. And I was the guy with the most repertoire, because I knew all the Chico Buarque songs, all the Jovem Guarda songs, all the Beatles songs, so I was the official musician and the rest of the people who frequented the place weren’t even musicians, I was the musician who played there on that corner.”
In 1973, Borges released his debut solo album, Lô Borges, which was followed by A Via Láctea in 1979 and Os Borges in 1980. Clube da Esquina 2, which arrived in 1978, featured the Borges compositions ‘Ruas da Cidade’ and ‘Pão e Água’. His recorded output slowed down in the ’80s and ’90s, but he continued releasing music up until 2023, when he issued Não Me Espere Na Estação.
