Milton Nascimento
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Milton Nascimento
singer; songwriter
Personal Information
Born in 1942 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; raised in Tres Pontas, Minas Gerais, Brazil; mother's name, Lilia.
Career
Recording artist, 1967--. Appears on daily Brazilian music radio program, Catarento. Has appeared in several films, including Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Ruy Guerra's Os Deuses e os Mortos, also composing music score for the latter. Founded Minas Music School in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Life's Work
Multitalented Milton Nascimento is frequently acclaimed as Brazil's greatest musician. His haunting voice is often described in terms of something from heaven, "an agonizingly pure tenor that often slips into an ethereal falsetto," Larry Rohter wrote in the New York Times. As a songwriter and harmonist, he weaves a startling blend of musical influences, including Brazilian and African folk strains, European classical music, the Brazilian bossa nova, even the rock sound of the Beatles, creating melodies which Jon Pareles in the New York Times noted can "seem as simple as nursery chants or as serpentine as jazz tunes." His Portuguese lyrics range from themes of universal love and the spiritual unification of the child and adult, to expressions of the struggle of oppressed people in Latin America and throughout the world. He has collaborated with and inspired numerous Latin American musicians, and has won the admiration of diverse American artists, including jazzmen Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny, and rock stars Paul Simon and Sting. In Pareles's opinion, Nascimento reigns as "one of the greatest musicians alive."
Nascimento has been a major star in Brazil and Latin America for more than 20 years. One concert in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1984, drew upwards of over 150,000 fans, and in recent years Nascimento has also commanded sold-out performances in major U.S. cities. Outside of Brazil, Nascimento is often categorized as a jazz artist, yet as Robert Palmer observed in the New York Times, "many of the songs he writes and performs are complicated and tricky enough to tax the interpretive abilities of the best jazz improvisers." Nascimento is uncomfortable having his music described as jazz. "It's not that I don't like jazz," he told Rohter. "It's that I don't like labels. Here in Brazil, we listen to everything, and in my little town in the interior of Minas Gerais we never worried about it. We just sang whatever appealed to us."
Nascimento was raised by adoptive white parents in the small town of Tres Pontas, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. To this day, he considers the countryside of Minas Gerais his center. "Minas is my alimentacao, my nourishment," he told Pamela Bloom in Musician. "Everything I am, mentally, physically, spiritually resides in Minas." It was in his isolated village that Nascimento developed what Rohter called his "sophisticated harmonic sense." He and his boyhood musical friends, which included his keyboardist Wagner Tiso, would listen to radio broadcasts from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and the transmissions were partially interrupted by the surrounding mountains. "They'd play a song we like, and we'd copy the lyrics and the melody, but we had to invent the harmonies out of our own heads," he told Rohter. "Months later, we'd get to a big city to play the song and see that our harmonies were completely different from the original."
Nascimento travelled to Sao Paulo in 1965, and as an unknown bass player struggled to find work in a saturated club scene. His compositions began to gain recognition, however, and the famous Brazilian singer Elis Regina, who recorded several of his songs, secured him a performance on the national television music program, Fino da Bossa. His big break came in 1967, however, when three of his songs were showcased at the prestigious First International Pop Song Festival in Rio de Janeiro. Unknown to Nascimento, who was wary of competitions and the egoism involved, a singer-friend entered the songs for him. After his impressive showing in the song festival, he became highly sought after by recording companies in Rio. Nascimento's first two albums, Travessia (1967) and Milton Nascimento (1969) established him as a major new talent in Brazil, and with his 1969 A&M album Courage, he was touted to American musical audiences as the successor to bossa nova stars such as Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Nascimento felt uncomfortable, however, with the recording business in North America, preferring the more intimate, collaborative nature of the music scene in Brazil. "I'm used to being the friend of my songwriting partners," he explained to Rohter. "So I would get there to the United States, and first you had to talk with the agent, then the publishing company, then the lawyer. The last thing would be the person himself, and by then I'd generally be tired and discouraged." He also found American producers interested in steering him away from the originality of his conceptions and ideas, so for many years Nascimento concentrated on recording in Brazil. Not until the 1980s, with his stature as an international star secure, was Nascimento able to work with the American recording industry on his own terms.
Nascimento has continually exerted his musical independence, despite barriers in his own country. In 1985, a civilian government was restored in Brazil after 21 years of military rule, and throughout much of his career, Nascimento has had to work within censorship guidelines, often at personal risk. His 1973 album, Milagre dos Peixes, was produced under the severest of restrictions, and many Brazilian musicians at the time had opted to work outside of the country. "We'd write something, the censors would send it back, stamped No Way, " he told Bloom. "We'd have to write the same thing in a way that the censors wouldn't notice but the people would understand." Nascimento's solution, as Bloom related, was "'to transform my voice into an instrument' that could register all his defiance, anger and sadness that lay behind his censored lyrics." Many of Nascimento's songs, including "San Vicente" and "Maria, Maria," have become anthems not only in Brazil, but throughout the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America. His song "Coracao de Estudante" became a rallying cry for many Brazilians who in 1984 took to the streets demanding free elections in Brazil and an end to military rule.
Collaboration and musical sharing is essential to Nascimento, who works with several lyricists, but predominantly Fernando Brant. Nascimento views music as an exchange across barriers and a way to reach many. "I can sing in Portuguese and still communicate with people who don't know the language," he told Palmer. "You can get your own feelings and images from the music, and when people do that, it makes me very happy. Every time I sing a song, it will have a different feeling for me, because the music changes as I change in my life. I work from the heart, and the heart speaks for itself." Palmer described such an exchange in his review of a 1984 Nascimento concert at Carnegie Hall. "Perched atop a stool with his guitar in hand, he communicated with sunny smiles, casual gestures, and richly textured singing that seemed to sketch exceptionally fine shadings of emotional nuance.... The intent of most of Mr. Nascimento's songs--longing, desire, evocations of childhood, hopes for a Latin America freed from racial, social and economic inequality--came through strongly."
Musicians throughout Latin America have traveled to Brazil to work with Nascimento, as have many from the United States. Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter met Nascimento in 1974 and the following year their collaborative Native Dancer was released, an album that many consider to be one of the most influential jazz recordings of the 1970s. Nascimento treasures the bond with other musicians, and lists among his influences American jazz artists Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Hubert Laws, and Shorter. "There's something very beautiful that happens with music," he told Bloom. "It's as if you are walking down the street looking at many different faces, and suddenly you feel strongly they have something in common with you."
Nascimento's vast array of influences are showcased throughout his over 25 albums. Clube da Esquina ("The Club on the Corner," 1972) was a landmark collaboration recreating the street music scene he was a part of in Minas Gerais. Minas (1975), noted Bloom, "surveys a stark interior landscape of contrapuntal voices (notably chanting children) that intersect Milton's at odd angles," and, according to Palmer, is "a dream-like album of drifting, luminous moonscapes that is perhaps Mr. Nascimento's best single disk." Geraes (1976), added Bloom, "charts a regional folktrail, while songs like 'Girou, Girou,' with its sudden wordless vocal flight, suggest a bruised sensuality struggling for release." The above three albums display vintage Nascimento, according to Palmer: "Deft musical transitions and snatches of sound from the countryside or from city streets are used subtly to give each album its particular flux of moods and to impart a song-by-song narrative flow of almost cinematic clarity." Several of Nascimento's albums of the 1980s--including Anima (1982), Encontros e Despedidas (1985), Yauarete (1987), and Miltons (1989)--have become easily available to American record buyers and amply showcase his harmonic and songwriting talents.
Nascimento's 1982 Missa dos Quilombos is a mass-oratorio dedicated to the story of blacks in Brazil from slavery to current times. In working on the ambitious project, Nascimento discovered that many slavery documents had been destroyed over the years by government officials, "to eliminate the black spot on Brazil's history," as he told Stephen Holden in the New York Times, and he had to travel around the country to interview people. Since the restoration of civilian rule in Brazil in 1985, Nascimento has had the opportunity to be more forthright with the messages in his music. In recent years he has especially spoken out on the preservation of the Amazon River region. His 1991 album Txai focuses on the plight of indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin and the destruction of the rain forest, and it incorporates the haunting folk music of several jungle tribes. "Those of us who hold microphones become the voice of those who do not have microphones," he was quoted as saying by Geri Smith in Americas. "We have to alert others to what is happening in this world. We have to talk about preserving our planet, the earth, green things, animals, human beings--talk about how people treat each other."
Nascimento's popularity continues to expand outside of Brazil. Steve Heilio wrote in Beat: "Milton appears before huge audiences in his home country, and his select smaller performances overseas at such events and places as the Montreux Jazz Festival and Carnegie Hall are both celebrations of pride and joy for expatriate Brazilians and eye-openers for open-minded music lovers of all nationalities. A quarter-century after his career began, Milton is an international music treasure whose melodies and messages know no borders."
Works
Selective Discography
- Travessia, Sigla, 1967.
- Milton Nascimento, EMI/Odeon, 1969.
- Courage, A&M, 1969.
- Clube da Esquina, EMI/Odeon, 1972.
- Milagre dos Peixes, EMI/Odeon, 1973, Milagre dos Peixes ao Vivo, EMI/Odeon, 1974.
- Minas, EMI/Odeon, 1975.
- (With Wayne Shorter) Native Dancer, Columbia, 1975.
- Milton, A&M, 1976.
- Geraes, EMI/Odeon, 1976.
- Clube da Esquina 2, EMI/Odeon, 1978.
- Journey to Dawn, A&M, 1979.
- Sentinela, Ariola, 1980.
- (With George Duke) A Brazilian Love Affair, Epic, 1980.
- Cacador de Mim, Ariola, 1981.
- Missa dos Quilombos, Ariola, 1982.
- Paixao e Fe, EMI/Odeon.
- Anima, Ariola, 1982, reissued, Verve, 1990.
- Milton Nascimento ao Vivo, Barclay, 1983.
- Encontros e Despedidas, Polydor, 1985.
- A Barca dos Amantes, Polygram, 1987.
- (With Sarah Vaughan) Brazil Romance, {New York City}, 1987.
- Yauarete, CBS, 1987.
- Miltons, CBS, 1989.
- Txai, CBS, 1991.
Further Reading
Sources
- Americas, July/August 1988.
- Beat, Volume 10, Number 2, 1991.
- Cash Box, December 2, 1989.
- Down Beat, September 1984; November 1989.
- Jazz Times, August 1986.
- Musician, September 1986; September 1987; October 1988.
- New York Times, June 1, 1984; June 4, 1984; May 4, 1986; June 25, 1986; June 28, 1986; July 27, 1988; July 30, 1988; November 16, 1989; April 4, 1991.
- Village Voice, June 12, 1984; July 1, 1986.
— Michael E. Mueller
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Milton Nascimento
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Milton Nascimento
| For The Record... |
| Born in 1942 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; raised in Tres Pontas, Minas Gerais, Brazil; mother’s name, Lilia. Recording artist, 1967—. Appears on daily Brazilian music radio program, Catarento. Has appeared in several films, including Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Ruy Guerra’s Os Deuses e os Mortos, also composing music score for the latter. Founded Minas Music School in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Addresses: Home—Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Record company—Columbia (Sony Music Distribution), Sony Music Entertainment, P.O. Box 4450, New York, NY 10101. |
Singer, songwriter
Multi-talented Milton Nascimento is frequently acclaimed as Brazil’s greatest musician. His haunting voice is often described in terms of something from heaven, "an agonizingly pure tenor that often slips into an ethereal falsetto," Larry Rohter wrote in the New York Times. As a songwriter and harmonist, he weaves a startling blend of musical influences, including Brazilian and African folk strains, European classical music, the Brazilian bossa nova, even the rock sound of the Beatles, creating melodies which Jon Pareles in the New York Times noted can "seem as simple as nursery chants or as serpentine as jazz tunes." His Portuguese lyrics range from themes of universal love and the spiritual unification of the child and adult, to expressions of the struggle of oppressed people in Latin America and throughout the world. He has collaborated with and inspired numerous Latin American musicians, and has won the admiration of diverse American artists, including jazzmen Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny, and rock stars Paul Simon and Sting. In the opinion of Pareles, Nascimento reigns as "one of the greatest musicians alive."
Nascimento has been a major star in Brazil and Latin America for over twenty years. One concert in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, in 1984, drew upwards of over 150,000 fans, and in recent years Nascimento has also commanded sold-out performances in major U.S. cities. Outside of Brazil, Nascimento is often categorized as a jazz artist, yet as Robert Palmer observed in the New York Times, "many of the songs he writes and performs are complicated and tricky enough to tax the interpretive abilities of the best jazz improvisers." Nascimento is uncomfortable having his music described as jazz. "It’s not that I don’t like jazz," he told Rohter. "It’s that I don’t like labels. Here in Brazil, we listen to everything, and in my little town in the interior of Minas Gerais we never worried about it. We just sang whatever appealed to us."
Mountains Encouraged Inventive Harmonies
Nascimento was raised by adoptive white parents in the small town of Tres Pontas, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. To this day, he considers the countryside of Minas Gerais his center. "Minas is my alimentacao, my nourishment," he told Pamela Bloom in Musician. "Everything I am, mentally, physically, spiritually resides in Minas." It was in his isolated village that Nascimento developed what Rohter called his "sophisticated harmonic sense." He and his boyhood musical friends, which included his keyboardist Wagner Tiso, would listen to radio broadcasts from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and the transmissions were partially interrupted by the surrounding mountains. "They’d play
a song we like, and we’d copy the lyrics and the melody, but we had to invent the harmonies out of our own heads," he told Rohter. "Months later, we’d get to a big city to play the song and see that our harmonies were completely different from the original."
Nascimento travelled to Sao Paulo in 1965, and as an unknown bass player struggled to find work in a saturated club scene. His compositions began to gain recognition, however, and the famous Brazilian singer Elis Regina, who recorded several of his songs, secured him a performance on the national television music program, Fino da Bossa. His big break came in 1967, however, when three of his songs were showcased at the prestigious First International Pop Song Festival in Rio de Janeiro. Unknown to Nascimento, who was wary of competitions and the egoism involved, a singer-friend entered the songs for him. After his impressive showing in the song festival, he became highly sought-after by recording companies in Rio. Nascimento’s first two albums, Travessia (1967) and Milton Nascimento (1969) established him as a major new talent in Brazil, and with his 1969 A & M album Courage, he was touted to American musical audiences as the successor to bossa nova stars such as Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Preferred Brazilian Recording Business
Nascimento felt uncomfortable, however, with the recording business in North America, preferring the more intimate, collaborative nature of the music scene in Brazil. "I’m used to being the friend of my songwriting partners," he explained to Rohter. "So I would get there to the United States, and first you had to talk with the agent, then the publishing company, then the lawyer. The last thing would be the person himself, and by then I’d generally be tired and discouraged." He also found American producers interested in steering him away from the originality of his conceptions and ideas, so for many years Nascimento concentrated on recording in Brazil. Not until the 1980s, with his stature as an international star secure, was Nascimento able to work with the American recording industry on his own terms.
Nascimento has continually exerted his musical independence, despite barriers in his own country. In 1985, a civilian government was restored in Brazil after twenty-one years of military rule, and throughout much of his career, Nascimento has had to work within censorship guidelines, often at personal risk. His 1973 album, Milagre dos Peixes, was produced under the severest of restrictions, and many Brazilian musicians at the time had opted to work outside of the country. "We’d write something, the censors would send it back, stamped No Way," he told Bloom. "We’d have to write the same thing in a way that the censors wouldn’t notice but the people would understand." Nascimento’s solution, as Bloom related, was "‘to transform my voice into an instrument’ that could register all his defiance, anger and sadness that lay behind his censored lyrics." Many of Nascimento’s songs, including "San Vicente" and "Maria, Maria," have become anthems in not only Brazil, but throughout the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America. His song "Coracao de Estudante" became a rallying cry for many Brazilians who in 1984 took to the streets demanding free elections in Brazil and an end to military rule.
An Exchange Across Barriers
Collaboration and musical sharing is essential to Nascimento, who works with several lyricists, but predominantly Fernando Brant. Nascimento views music as an exchange across barriers, and a way to reach many. "I can sing in Portuguese and still communicate with people who don’t know the language," he told Palmer. "You can get your own feelings and images from the music, and when people do that, it makes me very happy. Every time I sing a song, it will have a different feeling for me, because the music changes as I change in my life, I work from the heart, and the heart speaks for itself." Palmer described such an exchange in his review of a 1984 Nascimento concert at Carnegie Hall. "Perched atop a stool with his guitar in hand, he communicated with sunny smiles, casual gestures, and richly textured singing that seemed to sketch exceptionally fine shadings of emotional nuance…. The intent of most of Mr. Nascimento’s songs—longing, desire, evocations of childhood, hopes for a Latin America freed from racial, social and economic inequality—came through strongly."
Musicians throughout Latin America have travelled to Brazil to work with Nascimento, as have many from the United States. Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter met Nascimento in 1974 and the following year their collaborative Native Dancer was released, an album that many consider to be one of the most influential jazz recordings of the 1970s. Nascimento treasures the bond with other musicians, and lists among his influences American jazz artists Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Hubert Laws, and Shorter. "There’s something very beautiful that happens with music," he told Bloom. "It’s as if you are walking down the street looking at many different faces, and suddenly you feel strongly they have something in common with you."
Nascimento’s vast array of influences are showcased throughout his over twenty-five albums. Clube da Esquina (1972), "The Club on the Corner," was a landmark collaboration re-creating the street music scene he was a part of in Minas Gerais. Minas (1975), noted Bloom, "surveys a stark interior landscape of contrapuntal voices (notably chanting children) that intersect Milton’s at odd angles," and, according to Palmer, is "a dream-like album of drifting, luminous moonscapes that is perhaps Mr. Nascimento’s best single disk." Geraes (1976), added Bloom, "charts a regional folktrail, while songs like ‘Girou, Girou,’ with its sudden wordless vocal flight, suggest a bruised sensuality struggling for release." The above three albums display vintage Nascimento, according to Palmer: "Deft musical transitions and snatches of sound from the countryside or from city streets are used subtly to give each album its particular flux of moods and to impart a song-by-song narrative flow of almost cinematic clarity." Several of Nascimento’s albums of the 1980s have become easily available to American record buyers, and amply showcase his harmonic and songwriting talents, including Anima (1982), Encontros e Despedidas (1985), Yauarete (1987), and Miltons (1989).
Messages Behind the Music
Nascimento’s 1982 Missa dos Quilombos is a mass-oratorio dedicated to the story of blacks in Brazil from slavery to current times. In working on the ambitious project, Nascimento discovered that many slavery documents had been destroyed over the years by government officials, "to eliminate the black spot on Brazil’s history," as he told Stephen Holden in the New York Times, and he had to travel around the country to interview people. Since the restoration of civilian rule in Brazil in 1985, Nascimento has had the opportunity to be more forthright with the messages in his music. In recent years he has especially spoken out on the preservation of the Amazon river region. His 1991 album, Txai, focuses on the plight of indigenous peoples of the Amazon basin and the destruction of the rain forest, and incorporates the haunting folk music of several jungle tribes. "Those of us who hold microphones become the voice of those who do not have microphones," he was quoted as saying by Geri Smith in Americas. "We have to alert others to what is happening in this world. We have to talk about preserving our planet, the earth, green things, animals, human beings—talk about how people treat each other."
Nascimento’s popularity continues to expand outside of Brazil. Steve Heilio wrote in Beat: "Milton appears before huge audiences in his home country, and his select smaller performances overseas at such events and places as the Montreux Jazz Festival and Carnegie Hall are both celebrations of pride and joy for expatriate Brazilians and eye-openers for open-minded music lovers of all nationalities. A quarter-century after his career began, Milton is an international music treasure whose melodies and messages know no borders."
Selected discography
Travessia, Sigla, 1967.
Milton Nascimento, EMI/Odeon, 1969.
Courage, A&M, 1969.
Clube da Esquina, EMI/Odeon, 1972.
Milagre dos Peixes, EMI/Odeon, 1973.
Milagre dos Peixes ao Vivo, EMI/Odeon, 1974.
Minas, EMI/Odeon, 1975.
(With Wayne Shorter) Native Dancer, Columbia, 1975.
Milton, A&M, 1976.
Geraes, EMI/Odeon, 1976.
Clube da Esquina 2, EMI/Odeon, 1978.
Journey to Dawn, A&M, 1979.
Sentinela, Ariola, 1980.
(With George Duke) A Brazilian Love Affair, Epic, 1980.
Cacador de Mim, Ariola, 1981.
Missa dos Quilombos, Ariola, 1982.
Paixao e Fe, EMI/Odeon.
Anima, Ariola, 1982, reissued, Verve, 1990.
Milton Nascimento ao Vivo, Barclay, 1983.
Encontros e Despedidas, Polydor, 1985.
A Barca dos Amantes, Polygram, 1987.
(With Sarah Vaughan) Brazil Romance, [New York City], 1987.
Yauarete, CBS, 1987.
Miltons, CBS, 1989.
Txai, CBS, 1991.
Sources
Americas, July/August 1988.
Beat, Volume 10, Number 2, 1991.
Cash Box, December 2, 1989.
Down Beat, September 1984; November 1989.
Jazz Times, August 1986.
Musician, September 1986; September 1987; October 1988.
New York Times, June 1, 1984; June 4, 1984; May 4, 1986; June 25, 1986; June 28, 1986; July 27, 1988; July 30, 1988; November 16, 1989; April 4, 1991.
Village Voice, June 12, 1984; July 1, 1986.
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
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Milton Nascimento
- Genres: Latin
Biography
International singing superstar and songwriter Milton Nascimento may have his roots in Brazil, but his songs have touched audiences all over the world. Born in Rio, Nascimento's adoptive parents, both white, brought him to Tres Pontas, a small town in the state of Minas Gerais, when he was two. His mother sang in a choir and at local music festivals, often accompanied by Milton. Nascimento's father was an electronics tinkerer, math teacher, and at one point ran a local radio station where a young Milton occasionally worked as a DJ. He began singing as a teenager. When he was 19, Nascimento moved to the capital Belo Horizonte and began singing wherever and whenever he could. Finally he caught a break when the pop singer Elis Regina recorded one of his songs, "Canção do Sal," in 1966. Regina got him a showcase on a popular Brazilian TV program, and after performing at Brazil's International Song Festival the following year, his career was launched.In 1972 he collaborated with fellow lyricists Márcio Borges, Fernando Brant, Ronaldo Bastos, and other friends to record Clube da Esquina, a double album that spurred three hit singles, including "Cais (Dock)" and "Cravo é Canela (Clove and Cinnamon)." The singles are still being recorded and have become standards in Brazil over the years. Since he began recording with his self-titled debut in 1967 for the Codil label, Nascimento has written and recorded 28 albums.
Nascimento's many achievements include Grammy nominations for his O Planeta Blue na Estrada do Sol in 1992, and in 1995 for his Warner Bros. debut, Angelus. Nascimento is also winner of the 1992 Down Beat International Critics' Poll and the 1991 Down Beat Readers' Poll. Nascimento has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Latin America.
His lengthy discography includes Courage, a 1969 album for A&M and Milton Nascimento that same year for EMI Odeon; Milton, also for the EMI Odeon label, recorded in 1970, and then four more albums for the label EMI Odeon: Clube da Esquina (1972), Milagre dos Peixes (1973), Milagre dos Peixes (Ao Vivo) (1973), and Minas (1975).
His other titles include Native Dancer (CBS, 1976), Geraes (EMI Odeon, 1976), Milton (A&M, 1977), Clube da Esquina 2 (EMI Odeon, 1978), A Brazilian Love Affair, a collaboration with George Duke (CBS Records, 1980), Journey to Dawn (A&M Records, 1979), and a series of five albums for Ariola: Sentinela (1980), Cacador de Mim (1981), Missa dos Quilombos (1982), Anima (1982), and Milton Nascimento ao Vivo (1983).
His output through the rest of the 1980s and '90s has been steady and reliable, though never musically predictable. Like any true jazz and pop veteran, Nascimento has a deep need to keep challenging himself, vocally, lyrically, and stylistically. Nascimento's other releases include Encontros e Despedidas for Barclay in 1985, Corazon Americano for PolyGram in 1986, A Barca dos Amantes for Barclay in 1986, Milton/RPM for Epic/CBS in 1987, Yauaretê for CBS in 1987, Miltons in 1988 for CBS, Txai for the same label in 1990, and O Planeta Blue na Estrada do Sol for CBS in 1991.
In the mid-'90s, Nascimento switched to Warner Bros. He released two excellent, readily available albums for the label, Angelus, his 27th recording, in 1995, Amigo in 1996, Nascimento in 1997, and Crooner in 1999. He returned after a short hiatus in 2003 with Pieta, followed by The Essential Collection: The Best of the EMI Odeon Years (1969-78) in 2006.
This charismatic Brazilian superstar just won't slow down any time soon, and whether he's packing a stadium in Brazil or singing at a club in New York, his experienced stage persona allows everyone in the audience to feel as if they're in his living room. On Angelus, he's joined by saxophonist Wayne Shorter, who pays tribute to Nascimento's 1975 Native Dancer LP, the high point of which was the synthesis between Nascimento's voice and Shorter's saxophone. That album helped to solidify Nascimento's place on the international jazz and pop scene in the 1970s. Whatever he writes and sings about, be it the planet, ways of living, and loving and dying, his music has always carried an eternally optimistic spirit. As he entered the millennium, Nascimento won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Pop Album for 1999's Crooner at the first annual Latin Grammy Awards in fall 2000. ~ Richard Skelly, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Milton Nascimento
| Milton Nascimento | |
|---|---|
 Milton Nascimento performing. |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Milton Nascimento |
| Also known as | Bituca |
| Born | October 26, 1942 |
| Origin | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[1] |
| Genres | Música Popular Brasileira |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, guitarist |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 1962–present |
| Labels | Warner Music Brazil Sony Music Brazil Philips Records EMI Music Brazil Warner Bros. Records Blue Note/EMI Records Nonesuch/Elektra Records |
| Associated acts | Clube da Esquina |
Milton Nascimento (Portuguese pronunciation: [miwˈtõ nasiˈmẽtu]; born October 26, 1942, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a prominent Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist.
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Contents
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Biography
Nascimento's mother was the maid Maria Nascimento. As a baby, Milton Nascimento was adopted by his mother's former employers: the couple Josino Brito Campos, a banker employee, mathematics teacher and electronic technician; and Lília Silva Campos, a music teacher and choir singer. When he was 18 months old, Nascimento's biological mother died, and he moved with his adopted parents to the city of Três Pontas, in the state of Minas Gerais.
Nascimento was an occasional DJ on a radio station that his father once ran.[2] He lived in the boroughs of Laranjeiras and Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro.
In the early stages of his career, Nascimento played in two samba groups: Evolussamba and Sambacana. In 1963, he moved to Belo Horizonte, where his friendship with Lô Borges led to the Clube da Esquina ("corner club") movement.[3] Members included Beto Guedes, Toninho Horta, Wagner Tiso, and Flávio Venturini, with whom he shared compositions and melodies. One composition was "Canção do Sal", which was first interpreted by Elis Regina in 1966 and led to a television appearance with Nascimento.[2] The collective, as well as some others, released Clube da Esquina in 1972. Several hit singles were also released.[4]
Nascimento is famous for his falsetto and tonal range, as well for highly acclaimed songs such as "Maria, Maria", "Canção da América" ("Song from America"/"Unencounter"), "Travessia", "Bailes da Vida" and "Coração de Estudante" ("Student's Heart"). The lyrics remember the funeral of the student Edson Luís, killed by police officers in 1968. The song became the hymn for the Diretas Já social-political campaign in 1984, was played at the funeral of the late President of Brazil Tancredo Neves the next year, and was also played at Ayrton Senna's funeral.
While his reputation within Brazil was firmly established with his Clube da Esquina works, Nascimento's international breakthrough came with his appearance on jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter's 1974 album Native Dancer. This led to widespread acclaim, and collaborations with stars such as Paul Simon, Cat Stevens, George Duke and Quincy Jones and the band Earth, Wind and Fire. Angelus (1994) features appearances by Pat Metheny, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Jack DeJohnette, Nana Vasconcelos, Jon Anderson, James Taylor, and Peter Gabriel. Through his friendship with guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, Nascimento came to work with the pop rock band Duran Duran in 1993. Nascimento co-wrote and performed the song "Breath After Breath", featured on the band's 1993 album Duran Duran.[4] He also performed with the band in concert when they toured in Brazil in support of that album.
In 1996, Nascimento contributed the song "Dancing" to the AIDS-Benefit Album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization.
In 2004, he worked with the Brazilian Heavy Metal band Angra, in the song "Late Redemption". The song is in the Temple Of Shadows album.[5]
He is currently collaborating with Jason Mraz on the latter's upcoming album.
Discography
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References
- ^ Milton Nascimento at Allmusic
- ^ a b Skelly, Richard. "Biography". Allmusic. All Media Guide. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p3369/biography. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ^ Essinger, Silvio. "Clube da Esquina (Club on the Corner)". AllBrazilianMusic. CliqueMusic Editora. http://allbrazilianmusic.com/en/Styles/Styles.asp?Nu_Materia=896&Status=MATERIA. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ^ a b "Milton Nascimento". World Music Central. World Music Portal. http://worldmusiccentral.org/artists/artist_page.php?id=2356. Retrieved 2008-03-22.
- ^ "Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives - Angra - Temple of Shadows". The Metal Archives. http://metal-archives.com/release.php?id=50822. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
- ^ Far Out Recordings
Sources
- Motta, Nelson (2001) (in Portuguese). Noites Tropicais. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Objetiva. ISBN 85-7302-292-2.
- Dolores, Maria. (2006) (in Portuguese). Travessia: A Vida De Milton Nascimento. RCB.
- Mei, Giancarlo (2004). Canto Latino: Origine, Evoluzione e Protagonisti della Musica Popolare del Brasile. Viterbo, Italy: Stampa Alternativa-Nuovi Equilibri.
- McGowan, Chris; Pessanha, Ricardo (1998). The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil (2nd ed. ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-545-3.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Milton Nascimento |
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Milton Nascimento |
- Official site
- (Portuguese) Interview with Nascimento, 1988
- Milton Nascimento: 12 Essential Performances by Ted Gioia (jazz.com)
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