Shangri-La, Osaka

Described as a beloved figure in Brazilian music, 81-year-old Hermeto Pascoal is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Starting out in a rural area of Brazil learning accordion from his father, he went on to make his first recording appearances in 1964. Seven years later, he played on Miles Davis’s album Live-Evil, after which Davis called him “the most impressive musician in the world.” Since the late 1970s, Pascoal has mainly led his own bands and due to some of his unconventional ways of making music (using teapots, toys, and cups partially submerged in water!), he earned the nickname “o Bruxo” (“the Sorcerer”).
Last year, he released the album Natureza Universal, which was described by Dusty Groove as “a jazz-based arrangement done with all the dynamic energy of Hermeto’s earlier music, tuned a bit towards the Duke Ellington or Gil Evans worlds of tone and colour.”

Brazilian jazz multi-instrumentalist