Milton Nascimento

Recognized for his distinctive falsetto, tonal range, and intimate singing style, Nascimento has won international acclaim not only for his works in world music, but also in pop and jazz genres through collaborations with artists ranging from Wayne Shorter and Pat Metheny to James Taylor and Sting. The Grammy and Latin Grammy Award-winning musician has been called one of Brazil’s greatest singer/songwriters with a career spanning 40 years and over 35 albums. In 2008, Nascimento released Novas Bossas—a record honoring the 80th anniversary of bossa nova music—via his newly established record label, Nascimento Music.

Raised by foster parents in the Três Pontas countryside of Minas Gerais in Brazil, Nascimento showed an early interest in music. After shorts stints studying piano and accordion, he taught himself to play guitar by learning portions of songs that he heard on the radio and singing along with the notes. Nascimento soon began performing with the bossa nova groups Evolusamba and Sambacana and eventually became a pivotal figure in the development of “Clube da Esquina”—a mixture of bossa nova, jazz, and progressive rock with Brazilian country music that achieved international attention in the late 1960s and
early 1970s.

Nascimento’s popularity continued to grow throughout Brazil despite the censorship that affected music in the country following its colonization, which often reduced his songs to little more than skillfully sang shouts and murmurs. Though his reputation was firmly established in Brazil, Nascimento's international breakthrough came after the US release of his album Courage, as well as the release of Native Dancer—a collaboration with jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter.

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