Luiz Henrique Rosa was born the 25th of November 1938 at Tubarão, in the south of the State of Santa Catarina. His parents, Raulino and Alice Rosa, lived in Imbituba, a city that didn't have the necessary support for the delivering of babies, and that's the reason why Tubarão was chosen. Musically speaking, his skills began to develop with percussion instruments until he received an acoustical guitar from his father when he was 18, already living in São José, which became his instrument of choice from then on.
When he was 11 he moved to Florianópolis with his family and studied in the Colegio Catarinense and at the Instituto Estadual de Educação. That was the city, Luiz always said, where he felt at home and because of that he was the first to proudly use the term “manezinho da ilha”, a nickname given to the local inhabitants that was considered demeaning back then. He was the first urban "manezinho".
When he was 20 he was told by the singer Neide Maria Rosa that the Diário da Manhã's director wanted to hire him. As easy as that Luiz started to work at the radio that, by that time, right after its opening, was one the best on the south of the country. Not long after this he got his own radio show, where he used to play his own compositions and the hits of the great singers of his day like Pat Boone, Nat King Cole, Elvis Presley, Billy Eckstine among several others. His cadenced
style was already a preview of what Bossa Nova would later be, but by then this genre was only taking its first steps in Rio de Janeiro with Tom Jobim and João Gilberto.
In 1960 the southern pianist Norberto Baldauf invited him to be part of his musical group, of which the revered Elis Regina was once part as well, just before her career took off. It was then, with Norberto that Luiz Henrique had his first music recorded, with the title: “Se o amor é isso” "If that what's love" featuring Claudio Alvim Barbosa (known as Zininho).
In 1961 he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he played at several night clubs, in the well known Beco das Garrafas, in Copacabana, and also recorded his first album. A compact with two songs: “Garota da rua da praia” and “Se o amor é isso”, both featuring Zininho.
In1963 he recorded his first LP: “A Bossa Moderna de Luiz Henrique" and reached the top of the charts all over the country with songs like: ”Sambou, sambou”, “Nobalanço do mar” and “Vou andar por aí”.
In 1965, while the Bossa Nova fever lived its prime in Brazil, Luiz Henrique went to the United States, following the trend of his time. In New York he met and worked with several great names of the American music scene such as Stan Getz, Oscar Brown Jr., Billy Butterfield and Bobby Hacket. And also with lots of Brazilian musicians like Sivuca, Hermeto Pascoal, Walter Wanderley, João Gilberto, Airton Moreira. with them Luiz Henrique composed and recorded many musics, in many LP's. Also during this period that he met the actress and singer Liza Minelli.