Toninho Horta

A guitarist from Belo Horizonte, born in 1948 into a family of musicians, Toninho Horta learned to play guitar with encouragement from his brother Paulo, a bassist, and his friend Chiquito Braga. He competed in the Festival Internacional da Canção in 1967 and made his first recording in 1969, on an album by Nivaldo Ornelas. He played on nearly every track of Clube da Esquina (1972), by Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, and the following year shared an LP with Novelli, Beto Guedes and Danilo Caymmi. Melody Maker magazine ranked him among the world’s best guitarists in 1977 and 1978, but his solo debut, Terra dos Pássaros, did not arrive until 1980. He later moved to New York.