The story of Afro-Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos stitches together histories of 1960s-1980s jazz, psychedelia, world music, experimentalism and post-punk. Based in Recife, Rio de Janeiro, New York City and Paris, Nana played with musicians as varied 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. This book traces the 15 years (1964-1979) leading up to Nana's Saudades (1979, ECM), an album evoking his sonic memories of Brazil that he recorded while in Germany. Saudades features berimbau, a one-stringed instrument that looks like a bow and arrow, alongside onomatopoetic vocals and the strings of the Radio Symphony Stuttgart. Daniel B. Sharp hears Nana's playing as a counterargument against dishonest notions of the primitive just as world music emerged as a genre. With a gourd, a stick, a wire, a wicker basket, and a stone, Nana made music as complex and contemporary as the ARP synthesizers in vogue at the time.

Situates Vasconcelos's reimagining of percussion and voice within the context of Saudades and the artist's itinerant life in New York, Europe and Brazil in the 1970s and 1980s.

About the Author
Daniel B. Sharp is Associate Professor at Tulane University, USA, jointly appointed in music and Latin American studies. He is currently chair of the Tulane music department. He is the author of Between Nostalgia and Apocalypse: Popular Music and the Staging of Brazil (2014).

Reviews
The structure of this well-documented work is as rigorous as it is thoughtful and provocative. ... Sharp choreographs and curates with thematic balance and stylistic creativity throughout the pages of his highly readable volume. -- Steven F. Butterman, University of Miami * Latin American Music Review *



Book Information
ISBN 9781501345708
Author Daniel B. Sharp
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic USA
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Weight(grams) 252g