Milton Nascimento - Courage (1969)

Milton Nascimento's international debut, with Deodato arrangements and slick production from Creed Taylor's nascent CTI imprint.  This makes it a bit of an outlier in his early catalogue, as do the two English-language songs, but it works beautifully on its own merits.  The album definitely made an impression on Stanley Turrentine, who would shortly base an album around two of the tracks here: Vera Cruz and Canção do Sal, aka Salt Song.  In a way, the lush, jazzy arrangements on this album anticipate Nascimento's later work with Wayne Shorter.  Even at this early stage, Nascimento's unique voice and heartfelt songwriting are the main draws that elevate Courage from just another gorgeous-sounding CTI record to something truly timeless.

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pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Clube Da Esquina
Milagre Dos Peixes
Native Dancer
Minas/Geraes
Clube Da Esquina 2

Milton Nascimento - Clube Da Esquina 2 (1978)

Second album from the Clube Da Esquina collective of musicians from Minas Gerais, Brazil, that had been established by Milton Nascimento and Lo Borges at the beginning of the 70s.  Following the success of their first album and Milton Nascimento's subsequent solo albums (see links below), the collective regrouped in 1978 for another double album.  If, as I initially did, you might assume the album cover above was another impromptu shot of Brazilian children, it can be surprising to learn it was taken by English photography pioneer Frank M. Sutcliffe, circa 1890.  That's just the first difference between this album and its predecessor.

Clube Da Esquina 2 was credited to Nascimento alone as the primary artist; while still involved as a musician, Lo Borges was more peripheral to this project rather than a partner, and only has three songwriting credits.  Milton takes most of the rest, shared with his usual songwriting partners of the time, and there's more songs by outside writers.  The result is an album with a much broader scope, and while the greater diversity has its own reward, it takes longer to digest (and not just in length - 15 minutes over its predecessor, despite having only two more tracks), running through a range of Brazilian folk themes and the various MPB styles of the time.

One other thing that made the first Clube De Esquina album such a joy in its accessibility was the Beatlesque sensibility that Nascimento and Borges brought to so many songs.  This time around, waiting for something with that poppy immediacy will take until the final quarter of the album (Maria Maria).  None of this should put anyone off approaching Clube Da Esquina 2 - live with it for a week or two, and it'll take just as strong a residency deep in your soul.  Nascimento's impassioned longings for unity and understanding; for lost loved ones; for all of Brazil's historical pain, and an urge to keep moving forward, is instilled in every one of his songs (and on key ones by others).  The highlights from the other group members and guests are many - more great guitar work from Beto Guedes, for instance, and the legendary Elis Regina as the first vocalist on O Que Foi Feito Deverá/De Vera, aka Vera Cruz.  More Elis Regina to come in the weeks ahead, and a different look at Vera Cruz coming on Monday.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Clube Da Esquina
Milagre Dos Peixes
Native Dancer
Minas/Geraes

Milton Nascimento - Minas (1975) & Geraes (1976)

One more Milton Nascimento post for now, with a pair of albums from '75 and '76 that were briefly reissued as a double-album in '77, so makes sense to post them together.  The titles taken together are of course an alternate spelling of Minas Gerais, the Brazilian state of Nascimento's upbringing, and the albums are further linked by an organ, woodwind & guitar swell that closes Minas and opens Geraes, so it would seem that the two records were very much intended to be regarded as a pair.

Minas opens with a 'na-na-na' children's chorus that will reappear as a thread throughout the album, before we get straight into some of Nasicmento's classic mid-70s songwriting with Fé Cega, Faca Amolada.  The post-Native Dancer sound of Minas dispenses with much of the rawness of Milagre Dos Peixes in favour of a more sophisticated, 70s jazz production, and there's spare orchestration in places - all supporting the strength of the songs well.  The absolute highlight for me is the re-recording of Native Dancer's opener Ponta De Areia, given a slow-swinging, assured dignity bookended with more children's choir.

Geraes, as mentioned in the intro above, starts where its predecessor left off, but as soon as that initial flourish fades the sound changes.  The jazz fusion of Minas has been replaced by a mostly stripped-back, folkier mode, but retaining the orchestration where called for.  Nascimento has only three songwriting credits out of the 12 tracks, and vocally shares more duets, making Geraes a more collaborative record that highlights his ability to mastermind a conceptual work drawing on the musical traditions of Minas Gerais.  In this way Geraes could be viewed as a precursor to Nasicmento's international breakthrough period on Warner Bros in the 90s.  The album ends with the gorgeous 5 minute ballad Minas Geraes, acting as the perfect thematic closer to these two great records.

Minas: link
Geraes: link

Milton Nascimento - Milagre Dos Peixes (1973)

Milton Nascimento's follow up to Clube Da Esquina was this, his most experimental album.  Even the presentation of the original release was out of the ordinary - an elaborate fold-out sleeve and colour-coded inserts for each track, and eight of the album's 11 tracks on LP, the final three on an accompanying 7".  This was a good three years before Songs In The Key Of Life - anyone know of any other precedents, or was Milton the first to do the LP+single package for an album?

The music was much more exploratory, earthy and percussive (Nana Vasconcelos is on fire throughout) than Milton's previous releases.  Highlighting this was the complete absence of lyrics on all but three tracks, the result of censorship from Brazil's military dictatorship of the time.  What remained were repetitive incantations from the vocalists, reaching their most primal on A Chamada, and just exhilarating and celebratory elsewhere.  The jazziness of Native Dancer is prefigured on the longest track Hoje É Dia De El-Rey, and that album would of course see a reworking of the Milagre Dos Peixes title track.

One of three tracks here left with its lyrics intact, the title track remains one of Milton's most enduring and gorgeous songs.  The other two are Pablo, sung by Lô Borges' youngest brother Nico (13 at the time), and a cover of Nelson Angelo's Sacramento, but this album is primarily about the music.  The uplifting rhythms and chants; the occasional string arrangements on Hoje É Dia De El-Rey and the title track; the barroom atmosphere created on A Última Sessão De Música - Milagre Dos Peixes is, in spite of the circumstances in its home nation at the time, a joyous experience, and unique in its creator's lengthy discography.

Alternate cover for European reissues - some with altered running order.

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Milton Nascimento/Lô Borges - Clube Da Esquina (1972)

Back to Brazil, with possibly the most stunning high water mark in MPB (música popular brasileira).  Clube Da Esquina (corner club) was a collective of musicians from the Minas Gerais state, led by Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges, the latter just 20 when this double-album was recorded.  With 21 songs in 64 minutes, Clube Da Esquina is like a fat-free White Album or stripped-down Manassas.  Over the succinct running time, it manages to take in regional folk influences, hazy, languid psychedelic pop and a huge dash of Beatlesque styling in a journey that feels more perfect with every listen.  Even the album cover has a great story behind it.

A track-by-track is pointless on an album like this; picking out highlights near-impossible for one with literally no duds - even the two tracks that don't break the minute mark are necessary, rather than jokey filler.  So here's a handful of favourites.  From Lô Borges' seven compositions, I'll go for the sun-dappled goodbyes of O Trem Azul with its gorgeous harmonies, and Trem De Doido, a poignant ode to mistreated psychiatric patients, with Beto Guedes' stinging lead guitar.

Out of Milton Nascimento's phenomenal songwriting and legendary voice... what to choose as favourites?  I'm going to plump for his more impressionistic side that comes out in the Side 3-4 split, on Um Gusto De Sol's woozy, sleepy personification of a pear in a fruit bowl, and the swirling production effects of Pelo Amor De Deus.  But then he's just as good as an interpreter, of Spanish songwriter Carmelo Larrea's bolero standard Dos Cruces, or duetting with Alaíde Costa on Me Deixa Em Paz.  Or indeed with no lyrics at all, on the near-title track or on the ode to his adoptive mother Lilia, soon to be re-recorded with Wayne Shorter (Wagner Tiso from Native Dancer is also all over Clube with his great organ style). Stay tuned for more of the near-instrumental side of Milton later this week, but for now make sure to download this perfect album.

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Wayne Shorter feat. Milton Nascimento - Native Dancer (1975)

For Wayne Shorter's first solo album since the takeoff of Weather Report, it was perhaps inevitable that the great saxman would continue in a similar fusion groove - and Native Dancer is certainly that.  What lifts it into another dimension entirely though is that Shorter didn't just follow through on his desire to make a Brazilian-influenced album, he got Airto Moreira in on percussion and the gorgeous voice of Milton Nascimento up front and centre.

The result was a damn fine album that sounds almost as authentically Brazilian as it does mid-70s jazz fusion.  On the four non-Nascimento tracks, Shorter breezes through the grooves with Herbie Hancock acting as the perfect foil (and composer of closing track Joanna's Theme) on piano.  And with summer officially kicking off, copious amounts of Fender Rhodes are mandatory, at least in my ears - the main electric pianist here is another Brazilian, Wagner Tiso.

Brazilian music in general from the 60s onwards is another summer must-have in my book, as longtime readers will be aware (more in the coming weeks naturally), and the star of Native Dancer has to be Milton Nascimento - this album was my introduction to his unique, soaring voice.  The remaining five compositions on the album are Nascimento's, picking from the cream of his catalogue up til then.  Milagre Dos Peixes gets anglicized to Miracle Of The Fishes here (but still with the Portuguese lyrics) and gets a fine MPB-jazz fusion makeover, as do Ponta De Areia, Lilia and more.  From The Lonely Afternoons actually reminds me of late 80s Pat Metheny Group sans guitar solos.  Grab a caipirinha and download.

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