[1][2] A long-time player of música popular brasileira, he is most well known for his collaborations with famous saxophonist Pixinguinha.

He later moved with his mother to the city of Rio de Janeiro, more specifically to the Estácio neighborhood.

Lacerda served in the military for 5 years, after which he requested a discharge and began playing music full time.

[2] At the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, he organized a group with Brazilian musicians, giving it the name Gente do Morro.

With this group, they accompanied names such as Carmen Miranda, Luiz Barbosa, Mário Reis, Francisco Alves, and Sílvio Caldas, along with him successfully working as a composer.

He was a founder of the União Brasileira de Compositores and director of the Brazilian Society of Authors, Composers, and Writers of Music.