Milton Nascimento
Track:
“Canção do Sal” (mp3)
Release: “Travessia”
Label: Dubas Musica
Genre: Brazilian : MPB (Brazilian Popular Music)
UPC: 844185037730
More On This Album
Extracts from text by João Máximo
If there is an album which paints a faithful portrait of a specific moment in Brazilian popular music – and is also fundamental in telling the story of the trajectory of a great singer and composer – that album is Milton Nascimento’s Travessia. The record was first released in 1967 on LP by the now defunct label Codil and will be re-released for the first time digital by one of Brazil’s up and coming labels, Dubas, on September 22, 2009.
Many are the odd episodes prior and during the recording of this album. We might start with the impact felt all over the country when a then-unknown Milton stepped onto the stage of Maracanãzinho Stadium, all by himself, wearing a tuxedo, carrying a oddly tuned guitar which sounded different, to perform the song “Travessia”, so new and so irresistibly weird – something in between Rio’s samba-canção and the chants from the state of Minas Gerais – that the jury of the II International Music Festival, not knowing if they were supposed to award the composer or performer, decided to award Milton.
Milton’s and his song’s success at the II Festival was the starting point for the album. Luiz Eça made the arrangements, “Travessia”’s adapted from the original by Eumir Deodato, another one of Milton’s mentors. Eça and his Tamba Trio accompanied him in the album.
The involvement with Luiz Eça, Tamba Trio’s pianist, who so strongly influenced a whole generation of musicians, came before that. “He was my idol and when I first met him, my knees were shaking. But he was so friendly that I used to go to his house everyday just to hang around”, says Milton. “When the idea of the album came up, I wanted him to make the arrangements and everything turned out all right”.
Besides “Travessia” and “Maria Minha Fé”, the album also features three hits, “Morro Velho” (with arrangements by maestro Lyrio Panicalli), “Canção do Sal” and “Outubro”. Even today, Eça’s arrangements for the orchestra and the base group (where Bebeto from Tamba Trio was also a member) sound very sophisticated and were enhanced by the remastering job, which was closely followed by Milton.
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