Nana Vasconcelos's Saudades

Naná Vasconcelos' story weaves together jazz, psychedelia, world music, experimentalism, and post-punk, featuring collaborations with musicians like Egberto Gismonti, Don Cherry, and Pat Metheny. His album Saudades (1979) evokes his sonic memories of Brazil and features the berimbau, a one-stringed instrument. Sharp sees his playing as a counterargument against dishonest notions of the primitive and compares it to the complexity of ARP synthesizers.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 18 November 2021
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Naná Vasconcelos is a Brazilian percussionist who has played with a wide range of musicians from different genres, including jazz, psychedelia, world music, experimentalism, and post-punk. Based in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, New York City, and Paris, Naná has collaborated with artists such as Egberto Gismonti, Don Cherry, Pat Metheny, Ralph Towner, Arto Lindsay, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon, Jon Hassell, Brian Eno, Os Mutantes, and Milton Nascimento. His music is characterized by its use of traditional Brazilian instruments, such as the berimbau, as well as onomatopoetic vocals and the strings of the Radio Symphony Stuttgart. Daniel B. Sharp sees Naná's playing as a counterargument against dishonest notions of the primitive, as world music emerged as a genre. With simple materials such as a gourd, a stick, a wire, a wicker basket, and a stone, Naná created music that was as complex and contemporary as the ARP synthesizers that were popular at the time.

Dimension: 197 x 127 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781501345715