The Incredible NANÁ

A de facto solo debut of sorts yet only ever released in Argentina, The Incredible NANÁ dates back to 1971 and finds the late Brazilian percussionist deep in dialogue with equally late Argentinian guitaristAgustín Pereyra Lucena. Kudos to Berlin-based Altercat for digging this up for the first time in 50 years, and for curating perhaps the most fascinating liner notes of 2020. The scene is set in early 70s Buenos Aires as Vasconcelos is summoned from Rio at the behest of saxophonist Gato Barbieri for a series of shows. Introduced to Lucena by the shows’ promoter, the percussionist enters the studio – in total darkness at his own request – and proceeds to map out the sonic and textural possibilities of the berimbau over a series of extended improvisations. The 16-minute-long ‘Concerto Pra Mãe Bio’ is nothing less than the original blueprint for much of what was to come from Vasconcelos in both a solo capacity and as an irrepressible collaborator: percussion skitters precariously across rangy, tensile barbs of sound, punctuated by silence, breath-as-instrumental- experiment and all-out speaking-in- tongues; grooves are found and then abandoned, the space as important as what fills it.

The introduction of Lucena spurs Vasconcelos on into more intense terrain, the former’s often portentous yet heavily bossa-influenced guitar accelerating and decelerating, picking out fragments of themes, building to crescendos of Baden Powell-esque grace and power. The final two tracks, ‘Tempo Feliz’ and ‘Conversa do Poeta’, feature Lucena alone, beautifully blending and balancing bossa, jazz and classical. Rare, mysterious and wonderful.