BruMa: Celebrating Milton Nascimento
Antonio Adolfo
Label: AAM Music
Released: 2020
Views: 2,912
Tracks
Fe Cega, Faca Amolada; Nada Sera Como Ante; Outubro; Canção Do Sal; Encontros E Despedidas; Três Pontas; Cais; Caxanga; Tristesse.
Personnel
Antonio Adolfo
pianoJesse Sadoc
trumpetMarcelo Martins
woodwindsRafael Rocha
tromboneDanilo Sinna
saxophone, altoJorge Helder
bass, acousticAndre Vasconcellos
bass, acousticRafael Barata
drumsClaudio Spiewak
guitar
Lula Galvão
guitarLeonardo Amuedo
guitarDada Costa
percussionAlbum Description
Antonio Adolfo’s latest album, BruMa: Celebrating Milton Nascimento, is devoted to the singer-
songwriter who is arguably Brazil’s greatest living composer of popular music. Nascimento’s
songs have been recorded by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Sarah Vaughan, Tony Bennett,
Stan Getz, Bjork, Esperanza Spalding and many other jazz and pop luminaries. It is a project that
Adolfo, himself a formidable composer and renowned keyboardist, had long wanted to take on.
Antonio’s appreciation of Nascimento goes back to the beginning of the latter’s career, when
they met just before the biggest musical event in Brazil in 1967.
It was the Second International Song Festival (FIC) in Rio Janeiro and Brazil’s most talented
young composers submitted songs to it in hopes of launching or furthering their careers. Adolfo
recalls, “Although he did not take first place, Milton was the great sensation at the festival, with
his song ‘Travessia’ (Bridges).” His sound was something different, incorporating regional
music from Minas and influences from pop, bossa nova and jazz. He launched a debut album,
Milton Nascimento, in Brazil the same year (later reissued as Travessia), which brought him
international renown. Three of its tracks are included on BruMa tracks: “Outubro” (October),
“Canção do Sal” (Salt Song) and “Três Pontas” (the name of the city in Minas where Nascimento
was raised). Adolfo, meanwhile, was finding success with his jazz-bossa instrumental group,
Trio 3D, and hitting the top of the charts with songs written with Tibério Gaspar like "Sá
Marina" (Pretty World).
Adolfo comments, “For this album, I immersed myself in the music of Milton and his partners. I
have been working on this project for six months, panning its rich repertoire and adding my
Brazilian jazz vocabulary. After working with more than thirty songs to choose nine, I once
again concluded that Milton Nascimento is the most modern and profound composer in Brazil.
His compositions broke traditional harmonic and rhythmic patterns, with his modalism and
natural rhythmic meters, all in a spontaneous, intuitive and natural way.”
Adolfo interprets the nine Nascimento songs on BruMa with his Brazilian jazz sensibility and an
adroit and sensitive touch on the keyboards. Other songs on BruMa include: “Nada Será Como
Antes” (Nothing Will Be As It Was) and “Cais” (Wharf) from Clube da Esquina (1971), which
made Milton a star in Brazil. “Fé Cega, Faca Amolada” (Blind Faith, Sharp Knife), from the
1975 album Minas, and “Encontros de Despedidas” (Encounters and Farewells), which Milton
first recorded live with Hubert Laws in 1985. “Caxangá” is from Milton Nascimento Ao Vivo
(1983) and “Tristesse” (Sadness) appeared on Pietá in 2002.
The album title BruMa, which means ‘mist’ in Portuguese, is also intended to bring to mind two
environmental disasters that struck Minas Gerais in the last decade. BruMa is comprised of the
initial syllables of two cities (Brumadinho and Mariana) that suffered similar tragedies. In 2015
and 2019, earthen dams collapsed and let forth floods of muddy waste materials that devastated
the towns, killed hundreds of people and rendered the rivers downstream toxic and lifeless for
years to come. Adolfo comments, “Milton and many Brazilians are part of a group effort to
ensure that the damage to the territory of Minas Gerais is not forgotten.”
Album Review(s)
- BruMa: Celebrating Milton Nascimento by Pierre Giroux
- BruMa: Celebrating Milton Nascimento by Nicholas F. Mondello
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About Antonio Adolfo
Instrument: Piano
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