Our Book Inspires a New Milton Nascimento Album

My appreciation of the remarkable music of Milton Nascimento was a major reason that I started writing about Brazilian music and that I eventually wrote The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil with Ricardo Pessanha. So, it was with great happiness that I learned recently that a musical map in our book had inspired Milton to embark on his latest musical project: E a Gente Sonhando (And Us Dreaming), an album that focuses on the music of his hometown, Três Pontas.

In The Brazilian Sound, we have a chapter on Milton and his musical colleagues from Minas Gerais, and a musical map that includes cities like Rio, Recife, and Salvador. It also has Três Pontas, because of the musical importance of Milton and Wagner Tiso (who also grew up there). When Milton saw that Três Pontas was on the map, he felt a need to return to the town where he grew up and explore the current musical scene there. He felt a strong emotion and wanted to give something back to his hometown.

"I started to talk with Marco Elizeo, who co-produced the album with me, and said, 'It’s tough! What are we going to do to show this stuff from Três Pontas that these guys talk about?' " Milton told Miguel Sá in the August, 2010 issue of Backstage. Sá continued, "The answer was to have a dinner in a bar in Três Pontas for thirty people, who were a good part of the musical community of the city. Between food and drinks, Milton could see what was happening with the musicians from there. This was the first of various events for the composer to get to know the local musical talents. Nobody knew, but the project of recording an album with them was already ripening."

Milton Nascimento collaborated with thirty young singers and musicians from Três Pontas on the album, which includes both new compositions and re-recordings of the songs “Raras Maneiras” (written by Tunai and Márcio Borges, and originally recorded by Simone), “Advinha o Quê” (Lulu Santos), and “Estrela, Estrela” (Vitor Ramil). The title track was composed by Milton over forty years ago and recorded by the Tempo Trio on their 1965 Tempo Trio album.

E a Gente Sonhando is set for release later this month.

*Miguel Sá's cover story “Tres Pontas é do mundo, é” is in August, 2010 (edição 190) issue of Backstage: Backstage.com.br. In that particular article, the author and Milton refer to the U.K. edition of The Brazilian Sound, which was titled The Billboard Book of Brazilian Music.

**Milton also talks about The Brazilian Sound and the new album in the press release “Milton Nascimento retorna a Três Pontas em novo disco” in "Notícias" area of his website: MiltonNascimento.com.br.