Airto Moreira

Brazilian musician Airto Moreira was without a doubt the world’s leading percussionist during the seventies and a pillar of the American jazz scene. Largely responsible for giving percussion the recognition it deserves, he has collaborated with many of history’s musical geniuses including Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Babatunde Olatunji and Zakir Hussein.

Born in the small village of Itaiopolis in South Brazil, Airto was raised in Curitiba. A child prodigy, he was presenting his own radio station and winning musical contests before the age of ten, a professional musician at the age of thirteen and had moved to live and work in Sao Paolo when just sixteen years of age.
He met his wife, the singer Flora Purim, in 1965 and moved to the United States to join her in 1968. It was not long before he had become well connected with New York’s thriving jazz scene. He began to play with Reggie Workman, Cannonball Adderley and Joe Zawinul to name but a few. Recommended by Zawinul to Miles Davis, he collaborated on some of the trumpet player’s great recordings such as Live/Evil, The Isle of Wight, Bitches Brew alongside the likes of Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea and John McLaughlin with whom he would later record under this own name.
He was a member of Zawinul’s legendary Weather Report group and played in the Return To Forever group formed by Chick Corea before forming his own band ‘Finger’s with his wife Flora Purim in 1970.
During the 70’s and 80’s Airto Moreira’s formidable percussive talent was in great demand, not only by jazz artists but also many in the pop scene such as Quincy Jones and Paul Simon. He also worked on numerous film soundtracks, lending his inimitable sound to Apocalypse Now, Last Tango in Paris and The Exorcist amongst many others.
An ambassador for percussion, Airto is a member of the collective Planet Drum alongside other virtuosos such as Giovanni Hidalgo, Zakir Hussein and Mickey Hart with whom he won a Grammy in 1991 for World Music.
Moreira is an active follower of Brazilian spiritualism, reflected in his The Other Side Of This album in which the healing powers of music are explored.
Recently his work has been the subject of DJ remixes while Airto has been working with the group of Japanese drummers ‘Kodo’ – one of his compositions was selected as an official song for the 2002 World Cup in Asia.
He became professor at the Ethnomusicology department at UCLA in 2000 and remained for three years researching in musical concepts and creative energy while continuing to record and tour extensively around the world.

Marushka

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