Naná Vasconcelos, Voted 8 Times World's Best Percussionist, Dies at 71

03/10/2016 - 10h29

The percussionist and composer Naná Vasconcelos died on Wednesday (9) morning in Recife. He was 71 years of age.

According to the Hospital Unimed 3, where Vasconcelos was undergoing treatment for complications related to lung cancer, he died from a cardiac arrest.

Vasconcelos was voted the world's best percussionist eight times by the American jazz magazine Down Beat and won eight Grammies.

The musician was taken unwell after a concert in Salvador on February 28, and was hospitalized the following day with a respiratory infection and an irregular heartbeat. His tumor had also grown.

Vasconcelos is survived by his wife Patricia and their two daughters. He was brother of Erasto Vasconcelos, also a percussionist and composer.

Naná Vasconcelos was born Juvenal de Holanda Vasconcelos in Recife, in 1944. His career took off when he moved to Rio de Janeiro, where he worked with Milton Nascimento in the 1960s, recording two albums.

In 1970, when the Argentine saxophonist Gato Barbieri invited him to join his band, Vasconcelos began what was a long and much celebrated international career.

After touring with Barbieri, Vasconcelos settled in Paris, where in 1971 he recorded Africadeus, his first solo album. In 1972, he recorded Amazonas and began working with Egberto Gismonti. This partnership lasted eight years and produced three albums: Danças das Cabeças, Sol do Meio-Dia and Duas Vozes.

Vasconcelos then went to New York, where he formed the group Codona with Don Cherry and Colin Walcott. He also recorded with B.B. King, Talking Heads and Jean-Luc Ponty and went on tour with the guitarist Pat Metheny.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

Read the article in the original language