Milton Nascimento (BR)

About

Also known as: Bituca, Milton, Milton Nascimiento, Milton de Nascimento

Milton Nascimento, known to friends as Bituca, is one of Brazil's most singular voices, a singer songwriter and multi instrumentalist whose falsetto can cut through any genre barrier. His roots in the Clube da Esquina movement in Belo Horizonte gave Brazilian music some of its most enduring compositions, including "Coração de Estudante", which became the anthem for the Diretas Já political campaign in 1984 and was played at both Tancredo Neves's funeral and Ayrton Senna's. That song alone tells you the kind of cultural weight he carries. His international profile took off after appearing on Wayne Shorter's 1974 album Native Dancer, which opened doors to collaborations with Paul Simon, Carlos Santana, Quincy Jones, Peter Gabriel, and even Duran Duran, with whom he co wrote and sang "Breath After Breath" in 1993. His 1994 album Angelus reads like a who's who of jazz and rock royalty. Across 32 studio albums and five Grammy Awards, Nascimento has built a catalog that keeps finding new audiences.