Yamandu Costa, sometimes misspelled Yamand�, is a Brazilian guitarist and composer. His main instrument is the viol�o de 7 cordas, the Brazilian seven-stringed nylon guitar. Yamandu began to study guitar at age seven with his father, Algacir Costa, leader of the group Os Fronteiri�os and mastered the instrument after studying with L�cio Yanel, an Argentine virtuoso who lived in Brazil. At age fifteen, Yamandu began study Brazilian Southern folk music, Argentina and Uruguay. Influenced by the music of Radam�s Gnattali, he began to study the music of other Brazilians, such as Baden Powell de Aquino, Tom Jobim and Raphael Rabello. At age seventeen he played in S�o Paulo for the first time at the Cultural Circuit Bank of Brazil which was produced by the Study Tone Brazil. Yamandu came to be recognized as the musician who revived Brazilian guitar music. Yamandu's diverse execution styles include styles like chorinho, bossa nova, milonga, tango, samba and chamam�, making him difficult to categorize into a single genre. Yamandu appeared in Mika Kaurism�ki's 2005 documentary film Brasileirinho. 

January 24th, 1980 in Passo Fundo (Age 44)