Nascimento, Milton

Nascimento, Milton, Brazilian songwriter, musician; b. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Oct. 26, 1942. He was raised in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais by his adoptive parents. He played the accordion as a child but had switched to guitar and bass by the time he was a teenager. He also formed an important long-term musical relationship with keyboard player Wagner Tiso when they both played in the same band. He played area jazz clubs while attending college. His first big break as a songwriter came in 1966 when a tune he wrote called “Cangmo Do Sal” was performed by the popular Brazilian singer Elis Regina. In 1967 he was voted best performer at the International Song Festival and one of his songs, “Travessia” (”Bridges”), won second place in the writing competition. In addition to writing many of his own songs, he has been closely involved with a cadre of poets and musicians from Minas Gerais called “Clube da Esquina” or “the Corner Club.” As a collective, the club released albums under the names of fellow singer/writer L. Borges and Nascimento that were as important and revolutionary in the early ’70s as the collaboration between Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto was in the late ’50s.

He has also been heavily involved with the New Song movement that swept Latin America in the ’60s and ’70s, working with major figures within the genre like Pablo Milanes, Silvio Rodriguez, and Mercedes Sosa. In addition, he sings of the Amazon, the environment, and Amnesty International. Jazz musicians started becoming aware of his prodigious talents in the late ’60s, when he toured Mexico and the United States in the company of João Gilberto and Art Blakey. Nascimento’s first appearance on a U.S. jazz album was on Wayne Shorter’s 1974 Native Dancer. Shorter returned the favor on his 1976 release, Milton, which also featured appearances by Herbie Hancock and Raul DeSouza in addition to Brazilian stalwarts Airto Moreira and Toninho Horta. Pianist Barry Harris even wrote a lovely ballad called “Nascimento” that has been performed by Harris and Tommy Flanagan, among others.

Discography

Clube da Esquina (1972); Milton (1976); Sentinela (1980); Encontros e Despedidas (1986); Yauaret J (1988); Mutons (1989); Missa Dos Quilombos (1992); Minha Historia (1994); The Art of Milton Nascimento (1995); Amigo (1996); Nascimento (1997).

—Garaud MacTaggart