JEFF TAMARKIN ON
MILTON NASCIMENTO
Certain indelible images enter the mind with the mere mention of
Brazil. Musically speaking, it’s impossible even to imagine a Brazil that did not gift us with the seductive rhythms of the samba and the bossa nova, or the contemporary sounds of MPB—
Música Popular Brasileira ("Brazilian Popular Music")—a socially charged, ever-evolving style that arose in the 1960s and continues to thrive to this day.
Through all of the evolutions of Brazilian music for nearly five decades, Milton Nascimento has been an enduring presence, both defining MPB and transcending it. Nascimento has never been content to stay in one place artistically, continually reinventing himself by charting new territory.
In the mid-1970s, he obliterated all preconceptions when he teamed up with the jazz sax giant Wayne Shorter on the album
Native Dancer, which found common ground between traditional Brazil and the then-burgeoning jazz fusion movement. In the early ’90s, Nascimento released
Txai, an album that drew attention to the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. A few years later he cut
Angelus, another commingling of jazz and Brazilian motifs that included collaborations with such heavyweights as Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette.
Pieta, Nascimento’s critically praised 2003 set, found him honoring the women who helped shape his life, while last year’s
Novas Bossas teamed the vocalist with two sons of the legendary Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim (a.k.a. Tom Jobim) to pay tribute to the sound that has long dominated Brazilian culture.
In each of his outings, regardless of how different from the one before, Milton Nascimento remains instantly identifiable. His songs—many of which have become Brazilian standards—and his radiant, luxurious voice are familiar to anyone who has spent any time with Brazilian music. Paul Simon called upon Nascimento to lend his voice to the album
The Rhythm of the Saints, and artists as diverse as Sarah Vaughan and Duran Duran have also utilized Nascimento’s golden vocal cords to sweeten their own projects.
Nascimento’s many awards and honors include a Grammy Award in the "Best World Music Album" category for 1997’s self-titled
Nascimento, and a Latin Grammy in the "Best Contemporary Pop Album" category for 1999’s
Crooner.
Reviewing an earlier Milton Nascimento concert at Carnegie Hall, the late music journalist Robert Palmer noted in the
New York Times: "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."
Undoubtedly, Milton Nascimento, Brazil’s gift to all of us, will still exude all of those qualities when he again takes the stage at Carnegie Hall.
Jeff Tamarkin is a veteran music journalist.
© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation
THE PROGRAM
“Beyond jazz, beyond pop, in its own special orbit, lies the Nascimento sound.” To that sentence, written 25 years ago by this writer for Milton’s Carnegie Hall debut, the same writer now adds, “beyond time.” On the list of intoxicating Brazilian musical forms (including bossa nova, Tropicália, Brazilian popular music, and samba), and the extraordinary musicians who helped create them (such as Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, João Gilberto, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, and Elis Regina), there’s one famous name that stands alone: Milton Nascimento.
As a composer and a singer, Milton remains so distinctive that four decades on, his sound and songs defy categorization by a musical trend or subgenre. In one song, “Sentinela,” for example, the composer touches on sacred music, opera, jazz, and pop, the transitions seamless. The duet— sung with Nana Caymmi—places the concepts of brotherhood and friendship (common themes for Milton) in an almost ecclesiastical realm.
Nascimento’s voice has been impossible to duplicate, and his compositions so personal, intricate, and deep that other singers are on thin ice when covering them. Sarah Vaughan, a musical genius, once said that Milton’s romantic ballad “Travessia” (“Bridges”) was one of the most challenging songs she ever had to sing; it required enormous practice, but the payoff was magical. She made it look easy,
he made it look easy, but few others could ever match them.
In more than 40 years and hundreds of songs—scores of them hits—Milton Nascimento has made few concessions to trends, either professionally or personally. At a Rio party attended by celebrities, he will be found away from the flashbulbs, in a corner, with old friends—if he goes at all. Extremely shy, complicated, and unpretentious, Milton reveres pop and jazz icons, but instead of emulating them, pays homage by extending invitations to record with him. The guest list includes Paul Simon, Sting, James Taylor, Duran Duran, the late Mercedes Sosa, and many Brazilian pop legends. When saxophonist Wayne Shorter asked Nascimento to collaborate with him, a profound friendship was communicated through music, and the resulting album,
Native Dancer, was radiant and new.
A self-taught musician, Milton was deeply influenced by listening to the radio in his home state of Minas Gerais, where for a time he worked as a DJ, announcer, and director for Rádio Três Pontas. In 1963 and 1964, he played in the group W's Boys, whose members’ names all began with
W: Wagner, Waltinho, Wilson, and Wanderley. To fit in, Milton temporarily became “Wilton.” Years later, Wagner Tiso became one of Milton’s finest musical arrangers.
In Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, Milton was pursuing an economics degree when he encountered musicians who’d become his musical partners, including Márcio Borges, his brother Lô Borges, and Fernando Brant. Milton’s calling was confirmed after he saw the French film
Jules et Jim, starring Jeanne Moreau. Moved to tears by the complex story of three friends, he, along with Márcio Borges, composed his very first song. It was called “Novena” and went unrecorded until the release of
Angelus (1993).
Nascimento played in several bands in Belo, and in 1965 returned to Rio de Janeiro, his birthplace. In 1966 and 1967, he took part in major Brazilian music festivals in São Paulo, winning an award as best performer, while his song “Travessia” (co-written by Fernando Brant) placed second. His composition, “Canção do Sal,” was recorded by Elis Regina, one of the first of the post–bossa nova Brazilian stars. A year later, Milton recorded his debut album, and in 1968, on a trip to the US, recorded the album
Courage, arranged by Eumir Deodato.
In the 1970s, although some of Milton’s songs were censored by Brazil’s military regime, he continued to record in the US. Among his most popular albums are
Milton,
Minas,
Geraes, Milagre dos Peixes, and the two volumes of
Clube da Esquina, which launched the careers of several musicians from Minas Gerais. With the best-selling album
Crooner (1999), Milton paid tribute to his own distant past as an anonymous musician and occasional ballroom singer. The lush repertoire mixed his later songs with those from 1950s crooners. More recent triumphs include the haunting and magical
Pieta (2003), a tribute to the voices and souls of the women in his life; and
Novas Bossas (2008), a musical homage in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the origination of bossa nova.
—Mark Ginsburg
© 2009 Mark Ginsburg