Airto & Weather Report He and his wife Flora Purim were the most famous Brazilian jazz artists in the 1970s, and a crucial part of the burgeoning jazz-fusion scene of those years. Almost all the previous Brazilian musicians who had arrived in North America before him were conversant with bossa nova and other Brazilian idioms, or perhaps with 'jazz bossa.'īut Airto and Flora were much more in tune with the musical sensibilities of artists like Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul. It also helped that Airto, and his wife Flora, were at heart jazz musicians. Jazz was especially ready for him in the late 1960s because of the syncretic nature of fusion and because many American musicians were intrigued by Brazil because of the success of bossa nova and the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim. When Airto came to the United States, he arrived at the right moment. Afterwards, many bands added a percussionist with a wide array of instruments, and percussive coloration became common in jazz and fusion. In concert, Moreira creates an atmosphere of surprise and discovery at times he has an edge of wildness and at other moments he seems to go into a trance and tap into spiritual energies.Īirto revolutionized the role of the percussionist with his performances with Miles Davis, Weather Report, Return to Forever, his wife Flora Purim, and other artists, and on his own solo albums. He broke new ground by mixing them with an avant-garde sensibility, great improvisational skills, and a charismatic showmanship. He was one of the first percussionists, in Brazil or outside it, to play many different instruments in performances, rather than specialize in a particular type of percussion. Airto Moreira: Brief Profile & Extended Discography by Chris McGowan Airto Moreira spearheaded the Brazilian 'percussion invasion' of the late 1960s and '70s that infused global jazz and popular music with new rhythms, percussive textures, and tone colors.
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