Amazonas
Naná Vasconcelos
1973
Rankings
Why This Album Matters
Amazonas, released in 1973, is a representative work of the initial phase of Naná Vasconcelos' solo career, an artist who would become globally recognised as an authority in percussion. The album emerged during a period when Naná was already consolidating his innovative approach, endowed with an intense curiosity that led him from Villa-Lobos' classical music to Jimi Hendrix's rock. Naná innovated by extracting an unprecedented range of sounds from percussion instruments, his great speciality, and became notable for his talent with the berimbau, an instrument that until then was almost exclusively confined to capoeira. He explored all the potentialities of the berimbau, including superimposing his voice over the sound of the vibrating string to create surprising effects. His style was marked by unusual metrics in jazz, such as rhythms in 5/4 or 7/4, common in the Brazilian Northeast, and by the use of any object that could produce an interesting sound in his compositions.
Context
The release of Amazonas in 1973 occurred at a crucial moment in Naná Vasconcelos' artistic trajectory. After moving to Rio de Janeiro in 1967 and recording with Milton Nascimento, he participated in Quarteto Livre and, in the early 1970s, formed Trio do Bagaço. It was during this period that Argentine saxophonist Gato Barbieri invited him to join his group, boosting Naná's international profile and initiating a long and fruitful career outside Brazil, with performances in New York and Europe, including the Montreux festival.
Tracks
Credits
Naná Vasconcelos
Raimundo Fagner
Naná Vasconcelos
Ary Carvalhaes, Luis Cláudio Coutinho
Podcasts
NAGULHA · Nagulha
Episódio comentando o disco Amazonas, de Naná Vasconcelos
Films
Books
Naná Vasconcelos’s Saudades
Daniel B. Sharp · 2021
This book traces the history of Afro-Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos, weaving together the stories of jazz, psychedelia, world music, experimentalism, and post-punk from the 1960s to the 1980s. It addresses his trajectory in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, New York, and Paris, and his collaborations with musicians such as Egberto Gismonti, Don Cherry, and Pat Metheny. It is an in-depth analysis of his work, covering the period of the album 'Amazonas'.
300 Discos Importantes da Música Brasileira
Charles Gavin, Tárik de Souza, Carlos Calado, Arthur Dapieve · 2008
Conceived by Titãs drummer and musical researcher Charles Gavin, the 434-page book brings together covers and reviews of albums released between 1929 and 2007. The texts were written by journalists Tárik de Souza, Arthur Dapieve and Carlos Calado.
Analyses
Notas Musicais: Sai de cena Naná Vasconcelos, percussionista que ...
blognotasmusicais.com.br
The first album made and released in Brazil, Amazonas, came out in 1973 on the Philips record label, solidifying Naná's reputation as a percussionist skilled in combining voices and percussive beats.
FLORIANO MARTINS | A Música se chama Naná Vasconcelos
arcagulharevistadecultura.blogspot.com
We often visited the home of one of them, Ricardo Bezerra, in an outlying neighbourhood of Fortaleza, and there I discovered an album cover that caught my attention, for Amazonas (1973), which was then considered his first album.
Naná Vasconcelos - Amazonas | TheAudioDB.com
theaudiodb.com
Artist: Naná Vasconcelos, Album: Amazonas, MusicBrainzID: 5204c257-854d-488d-ac91-9906e9a654f7, data, artwork, cover, cdart, spine, back cover
