Naná Vasconcelos

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Nana Vasconcelos - Portrait by Gert Chesi, 80s
Naná Vasconcelos (2003)

Juvenal de Holanda "Naná" Vasconcelos (born August 2, 1944 in Recife ; † March 9, 2016 ibid) was a Brazilian jazz percussionist.

Live and act

Vasconcelos played the bongos and maracas in his father's band, a guitarist, at the age of twelve . In the years to come, he became familiar with the different rhythms of the music of Northern Brazil, learned to play all relevant Brazilian percussion instruments and, since the 1960s, has specialized in berimbau , which he mastered with virtuosity and “whose playing technique he has developed far beyond the traditional line “( Martin Kunzler ). He later switched to drums and went to Rio de Janeiro . There he worked from 1967, first in Bossa Nova with the singer Agostinho dos Santos and from 1969 with Milton Nascimento , but also with Luiz Bonfá and Gal Costa . Gato Barbieri discovered him in Rio and accepted him as a percussionist in his band. Vasconcelos performed with him in 1971 in New York City , where he also recorded with Oliver Nelson and Leon Thomas . In 1972 he performed with Barbieri at the Montreux Jazz Festival and a subsequent European tour. Following the tour, Vasconcelos stayed in Paris , where he played with Jean-Luc Ponty , worked as a music therapist and where his first album, Africa Deus , was created. He was also involved in the recordings of Rolf Kühn and worked with Don Cherry in Sweden .

Naná Vasconcelos (2012)

After his return to Brazil he recorded the album Amazonas and began working with Egberto Gismonti , with whom he recorded three duo albums and who also signed him for his ensemble. In 1978 he founded the Trio Codona with Don Cherry and Collin Walcott , with whom he went on tour until 1982 and recorded three albums. He also worked live with Pat Metheny's band in 1980 and 1983 ; he could also be heard with the Yellowjackets , Talking Heads and U2 .

In 1983 he went on a European tour with a breakdance group from the Bronx and released the album Zumbi , which emphasized the rhythmic use of his voice and his body percussion. In the same year, however, he also began to deal more intensively with machine drum sounds (heard for example on his album Bush Dance ). 1986 followed a solo tour through his home country Brazil. He has also worked with a wide range of Brazilian musicians from Sérgio Mendes to the singers Joyce and Mônica Salmaso to Itamar Assumpção .

Vasconcelos also accompanied Harry Belafonte , BB King , Carly Simon and Paul Simon and in 1984 also worked with the “Singing Drums” ensemble around Pierre Favre . In the field of jazz, he brought his Brazilian percussion to numerous projects by musicians such as Joachim Kühn , Perry Robinson , Jim Pepper , Trilok Gurtu , L. Shankar , Arild Andersen , Andy Sheppard , Jean-Marie Machado and Céline Rudolph . He has toured Europe several times with Jan Garbarek and repeatedly with Don Cherry's group. In 1995 he played in a duo with percussionist Evelyn Glennie .

Vasconcelos was voted the best percussionist in several polls in the 1980s. In 1995 he was artistic director of the International Percussionist Festival in Salvador da Bahia . He also played film music in the 1990s a. a. for films by Mika Kaurismäki and José Araujo , after having been responsible for the music for films by Susan Seidelman and Jim Jarmusch the previous decade . In 2005 he appeared in the documentary Vasconcelos, Salis, Consolmagno with Antonello Salis and Peppe Consolmagno . He wrote ballet music for Pina Bausch , Jonathan Lunn and John Neumeier, among others .

Vasconcelos died of lung cancer diagnosed in September 2015.

Selection discography

Film music

Lexigraphic entries

literature

Web links

Commons : Naná Vasconcelos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lenda da percussão brasileira, Naná Vasconcelos morre aos 71 anos
  2. ↑ http://orf.at/#/stories/2328987/ Percussionist Nana Vasconcelos died, orf.at, March 9, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Vasconcelos, Naná
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vasconcelos, Juvenal de Hollanda (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian jazz percussionist
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Recife , Brazil
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 2016
Place of death Recife , Brazil