The band Arte & Ofício emerged in 1976, when bassist Sérgio Castro and vocalist António Garcez, two former members of Psico, decided to form a rock group.
This initial nucleus is joined by Álvaro Azevedo (ex-Pop Five Music Inc), on drums and guitarists Fernando Nascimento and Serginho. This group of veterans, all with extensive experience in Portuguese pop music, intends to make Arte & Ofício a professional group. Their sound is characterized by a mix of hard rock and jazz rock, in the vein of Gentle Giant, but with original aesthetics.
His first work is a single with “Festival” and “Let Yourself Be”, which will be followed by another single with “The Little Story Of Little Jimmy” and “Quibble”. In these two works, the professionalism of the band is evident and, above all, we discover a true performer in Garcez. In the year of the release of the singles, the first part of the Germans Can, at the Pavilhão dos Desportos in Lisbon. This year the Maxi Single comes out (the first in the history of national music) “Come Hear The Band” and “O Cacarejo da Galinha”, where the band reveals all its potential.
The theme with the title in Portuguese is totally experimental and the title theme is vigorous rock, which the Portuguese were not used to, coming from Portuguese bands. In 1979, “Faces” was released, his long-lasting work, with two very distinct faces: a rock face and a jazz rock face. This album features the participation of António Pinho Vargas who will be part of the band’s line up for some time. When it was thought that the band was going to last, it suffered a rude blow with the departure of Serginho and Garcez (the latter to form Roxigénio). Nothing, however, was lost. The band recruits André Sarbib and records “Marijuana”, a mega-success in their live shows and which allows him to perform Joe Jackson’s first parts in several Southern European countries.
The boom in Portuguese rock, with several bands singing in the Camões language, was fatal for the group. The public did not embrace his anachronistic rock sung in English and his latest LP “Danza” failed to prevail. Shortly after the release of the album, and faced with few requests for concerts, the group ended its career. At the same time as maintaining Arte & Ofício, Sérgio Castro formed Trabalhadores do Comércio, which allowed him to continue on the crest of the wave during the time that the Portuguese rock phenomenon lasted.
It was, in fact, with this playful band that António Garcez returned to recording and singing in Portuguese.
