Home » Jazz Musicians » Hermeto Pascoal

Hermeto Pascoal

Hermeto Pascoal is a prolific musician and composer whotranscends category. Hermeto often uses unconventionalinstruments such as teapots, children's toys, found objects,and—sometimes, without harming them—live animals. Heuses nature as a basis for his compositions, as in hisMúsica da Lagoa, where the musicians burblewater and play flutes while immersed in a lagoon. He is anenergetic and virtuosic soloist who can play proficiently onalmost any instrument: keyboards, button accordion,saxophone, guitar, flute, voice, various brass instruments,and various folkloric instruments. A Brazilian televisionbroadcast from 1999 showed him soloing at one point bysinging into a cup with his mouth partially submerged inwater.

Hermeto's career began in 1964 with appearances onseveral Brazilian recordings with relatively small groups.These now-classic albums and the musicians involved (EduLobo, Airto Moreira, Elis Regina, César Camargo Marianoand others) established widely influential new directions inpost-bossa Brazilian Jazz.

He initially came to the international public's attentionthrough an appearance on Miles Davis' 1971 albumLive/Evil, which featured Pascoal on severalstudio pieces (which he also composed). Davis has saidthat Pascoal was "the most impressive musician in theworld". Later collaborations involved fellow Brazilianmusicians Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. From the late1970s on he has mostly led his own groups, playing at manyprestigious venues, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival in1979.

Hermeto is a prolific composer, famous for his projectCalendario do Som, in which he composed asong every day for a year so that everyone would have asong for his or her birthday.

September Songs

by Katchie Cartwright
September 27, 2026

September songs mark the end of a long summer season and the beginning of one that promises to be shorter and cooler. Familiar compositions by the likes of Weill, Lins and Strayhorn stand with newer musings, performed by the composers and others. That's the long and short of it here in San Antonio, Texas, where the autumnal equinox brings swimming weather and Hermeto Pascoal's 366-piece song cycle, Calendário do Som (Itau Cultural/Editora Senac, 1996/1997), provides a whimsical throughline.

Radio & Podcasts

Hermeto Pascoal: Intocável

by Katchie Cartwright
September 28, 2025

On this edition of Caminhos do Jazz, we celebrate the life and work of the great Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal (June 22, 1936-September 13, 2025), o Bruxo, the wizard of universal music; o Campeão, who Miles Davis named as “one of the most important musicians on the planet." The show presents just a few of his 2,000+ compositions, cuts drawn from his first release (Em Som Maior, Som Maior, 1965) to his last (Pra Você, Ilza, Rocinante, 2024). ...

Radio & Podcasts

Hermeto Pascoal: the Sound of Everything

by Ludovico Granvassu
September 25, 2025

From his early accordion days and forró roots to his global influence, Hermeto Pascoal lived in total communion with sound, inspiring generations worldwide. More than a multi-instrumentalist, he was a true “multi-thing-ist," turning pianos, flutes, and drums into magic--but also rubber ducks, teapots, rivers, and stalactites. Perhaps shaped by his vision impairment, he treated every style and every sound source with equal respect, creating what he called universal music--not jazz, not strictly Brazilian, but everything at once. This playlist honors ...

Big Band in the Sky

Remembering Hermeto Pascoal: The Sorcerer's Spell

by Ian Patterson
September 16, 2025

Hermeto Pascoal, the one-of-a-kind Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and composer, has gone to the great gig in the sky. Known affectionately as Bruxo (Sorcerer), Pascoal passed away on September 13, 2025. He was 89. Few musicians have traversed as many styles of Brazilian music as Pascoal. His first commercial recording, in 1956, was with Clóvis Pereira--the renowned composer of folkloric, choral and orchestral works; Pascoal plays sanfona (button accordion) on two tracks. Over the next 65 years, Pascoal contributed to ...

Play This!

Hermeto Pascoal: Gaio da Roseira

by Ian Patterson
September 16, 2025

Hermeto Pascoal (June 22, 1936--September 13, 2025), the internationally renowned Brazilian multi-instrumentalist and composer, spent sixty years seamlessly fusing Brazilian music with jazz. From the album A música livre de Hermeto Pascoal (Sinter, 1973) the 14-minute track “Gaio da Roseira" captures the vocal lyricism, percussive colors, dancing rhythms, melodic lilt and avant-garde eclecticism that were some of the hallmarks of his music. In the music's most outré passages it is hard to believe that loops and effects are entirely absent. ...

Album Review

Cal Tjader: Amazonas

Read "Amazonas" reviewed by Richard J Salvucci

by Richard J Salvucci
August 12, 2025

Multi-instrumentalist Cal Tjader has been gone for over forty years. Had he lived, he would be in his nineties today. The West Coast scene he entered, first as a drummer, then as a vibraphonist, was a world of clubs, acoustic bands, and enthusiastic promoters who pushed their favorite artists' careers. For Tjader, it was San Francisco, the Blackhawk, and jazz writer Ralph Gleason. Tjader broke in playing with Dave Brubeck in 1948. He was continuously employed until his premature death ...

Radio & Podcasts

Jazz In Brazil: the legendary composers and musicians

by Larry Slater
March 14, 2025

Though Bossa Nova, and the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim, are Brazil's most recognized musical export, Brazil hosts a vast number of musical styles with musicians garnering international followings. One of the most unique, and influential is the composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, who defies categorization. Moacir Santos is revered today as a giant of Brazilian music, but he struggled for recognition throughout his life. The singer and songwriter Milton Nascimento is a globally recognized icon, whose unique ...

Birthday