Naná Vasconcelos's Saudades

The story of Afro-Brazilian percussionist Naná 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, Naná 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 Naná'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 Naná'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, Naná made music as complex and contemporary as the ARP synthesizers in vogue at the time.

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).

Acknowledgments Figures Introduction 1. Naná in Recife, from Bossa to Tropicália 2. Counterculture and Dictatorship in Rio de Janeiro 3. The Enchanting and Revolutionary Berimbau: Naná and Glauber Rocha in New York City 4. Naná and Don Cherry: In Tune with Time Interlude: ECM Records Interlude: Creative Music Studio (CMS): The Unmusic School 5. Naná and Egberto 6. Utopia, Caricature, Satire, and Therapy: Naná in France Interlude: Naná's place within the Fourth World 7. Race, Primitivism, and Counterculture 8. Voice, Body, Rhythm, and Special Effects 9. Saudades and Saudades Epilogue: After Saudades List of Interviews Endnotes Index