Nana Vasconcelos
Percussionist Juvenal de Holanda Vasconcelos, known as Naná Vasconcelos (Recife, Brazil 1944 – 2016), specialized in the berimbau throughout his musical life and appeared on ECM between the 70s and 90s as a prolific sideman with celebrated jazz greats like Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek and Ralph Towner. His influential work with the Codona trio featuring Don Cherry and Collin Walcott and his longstanding duo with Egberto Gismonti are central to his oeuvre and demonstrate the percussionist’s unique sensibilities within varied formats and genres.
Between 1979 and 1983 Codona released three albums on the label: the self-titled debut, Codona 2 and Codona 3. In 83 The New York Times called the latter “ethereal and captivating”, while Billboard magazine spoke of “one of ECM’s most provocative” groups, lauding how “their third set again slips nimbly from old world to Third World and beyond”.
Vasconcelos’s duo performances with Egberto Gismonti were captured on Dança das Cabeças and Duas [...]
Percussionist Juvenal de Holanda Vasconcelos, known as Naná Vasconcelos (Recife, Brazil 1944 – 2016), specialized in the berimbau throughout his musical life and appeared on ECM between the 70s and 90s as a prolific sideman with celebrated jazz greats like Pat Metheny, Jan Garbarek and Ralph Towner. His influential work with the Codona trio featuring Don Cherry and Collin Walcott and his longstanding duo with Egberto Gismonti are central to his oeuvre and demonstrate the percussionist’s unique sensibilities within varied formats and genres.
Between 1979 and 1983 Codona released three albums on the label: the self-titled debut, Codona 2 and Codona 3. In 83 The New York Times called the latter “ethereal and captivating”, while Billboard magazine spoke of “one of ECM’s most provocative” groups, lauding how “their third set again slips nimbly from old world to Third World and beyond”.
Vasconcelos’s duo performances with Egberto Gismonti were captured on Dança das Cabeças and Duas Vozes. He also plays on Gismonti’s album Sol Do Meio Dia, appearing alongside Jan Garbarek, Collin Walcott and Ralph Towner. Saudades, Naná Vasconcelos sole leader-date for ECM, also features Egberto Gismonti and finds the berimbau set to an orchestral context.
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