Music serves a twofold purpose for Seu Jorge.

It’s a self-healing refuge from the surrounding lawlessness growing up in the favelas (Brazilian ghettos) on the outskirts of his native Rio de Janeiro. Amid such violent chaos, Jorge’s brother was murdered, which forced an 11-year old Jorge Mario da Silva (Jorge’s real name) to live on the streets for a spell.

In a translated e-mail interview, Jorge explains, “The only thing that stopped me getting caught up with the dark undercurrents was the love of my family and what they taught me as right and wrong. It will take a long time, if ever, to get the favelas out of my system.”

With two samba-heavy solo outings to his credit — Samba Esporte Fino (known outside of Brazil as Carolina) and last year’s Cru — music also is providing Jorge, now 36, a way to vocally urge the governing powers of Brazil that his people want something done about favelas.

“Our government just ignores the areas — there are no reforms in place to try and improve the conditions,” Jorge says. “If through my music or acting somebody might sit up and notice and take some action, then great.”

North Americans are taking notice of Jorge — at least for his big-screen acting.

He portrayed Knockout Ned in the 2002 Fernando Meirelles-directed City Of God. Two years later, Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou offered Jorge a dual role playing Pele dos Santos, an explosives expert who also sings early ’70s David Bowie classics in Portuguese.

“Wes is a massive Bowie fan and he was looking for a Brazilian who could play a guitar,” Jorge explains. “He asked if I could interpret some Bowie songs. I stripped the tracks down to basics and then rebuilt them. The songs relate to a lot of my own personal feelings — so the tracks don’t lose their original feel but the twist is the songs are personal to me, not to David Bowie.”