Naná Vasconcelos

Juvenal de Holanda Vasconcelos was born in Recife in 1944 and taught himself percussion by drumming on pots and pans; by the age of 12, he was already playing with his father. In 1967, he went to Rio and recorded with Milton Nascimento; the following year, he joined Quarteto Livre, which accompanied Geraldo Vandré at a festival. An invitation from Gato Barbieri took him to New York and Europe. He spent six months conducting research in Africa, and his LP Africadeus, recorded abroad, was released by Saravah in France (in 1972 according to Cravo Albin; in 1973 according to MusicBrainz). With the berimbau as his hallmark, he played with Pat Metheny, Don Cherry, and Jan Garbarek, formed the trio Codona, and received eight Grammys. He died in Recife in 2016.