Manu Lafer is a composer, a guitarist, a doctor and a music producer with more than 30 albums in his discography since the release of Baião da Flor (1998).
This prolific production reflects a consistent, restless and creative work as an interpreter of varied Brazilian music genres (samba, baião, bossa nova) as well as American styles (jazz, pop), besides Jewish and folk music, which makes him a composer in a researcher’s clothing.
As we say in the US, these are different hats to wear: besides the musician hat, there’s the doctor hat, his lifelong apprenticeship and practice, with tireless dedication to underprivileged populations, to the original peoples and to research (virology, vaccines).
Manu Lafer has partnered many times with other musicians, in significant collaborations for composition and/or interpretation with renowned artists such as Danilo Caymmi, Luiz Tatit, Toninho Horta, Germano Mathias (1934-2023), Mateus Aleluia, Dori Caymmi, Graça Braga, Ken Peplowski, Jack Wilkins (1944-2023), Howard Alden, Bucky Pizzarelli (1926-2020) and John Pizzarelli.
He has devoted projects to the singer Bobbie Gentry, to the precursors of Brazilian samba, to the American songbook (swing and jazz) and tributes to Germano Mathias (with participations of Gilberto Gil, Fafá de Belém and Anastácia, among others), Brian Gari (Eddie Cantor’s grandson) and Caetano Veloso (with John Pizzarelli and Caetano Veloso himself).
Manu Lafer has worked with producers Alê Siqueira, Swami Jr, Ken Peplowski, Alexandre Fontanetti and Justin Poindexter. Among his music arrangers we find the late Lincoln Olivetti (1954-2015), and also Luiz Brasil, Jacques Morelembaum, Dori Caymmi and Jether Garotti Junior.
In 2021, he released a Thesaurus edition in five volumes, with the sheet music to his recorded works, and the book Bolim Bolacho, an easy read in which he tells the story of his musical path so far.
Since 2004, he has been working as a pediatrician in Associação Beneficente Cruz de Malta. He specialized in infectious diseases, vaccines and original peoples’ health. He has done research at Columbia University (New York, US), in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA – Bethesda, Maryland, US) and in Instituto de Ensino e Pesquisa (IEP -Iinstitute for Education and Research) of the Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Hospital Albert Einstein (SBIBHAE). He holds an MBA in hospital management and a PhD in pediatric infectious diseases.