Damião Experiença

Damião Ferreira da Cruz was born in Santo Amaro de Ipitanga, now Lauro de Freitas, in Bahia, and ran away to Rio de Janeiro while still a boy. He served in the Navy as a radar operator and left the service in 1963. His stage name, a corruption of the word experiência, may be a tribute to Jimi Hendrix's band. He is said to have self-released Planeta Lamma in 1974, the first in a long series of records issued through the early 1990s, often sold by him on the street or given away for free. Averse to interviews and autographs, he became a touchstone of Brazilian marginal music and died in Rio in 2016.