Naná Vasconcelos: The Storyteller

Originally included with the September 2016 issue of Musica Jazz, The Storyteller is dedicated to the life and art of Naná Vasconcelos, one of the most accomplished percussionists in the ECM constellation and, by any reasonable measure, one of the most singular musicians to have walked the earth. Aptly titled, this collection presents Vasconcelos as a keeper of narratives. For admirers of his contributions to recorded art, it is both an invaluable sampler and a small chamber of remembrance. Vasconcelos had died only a few months prior to this release. Peppe Consolmagno’s liner notes preserve one of the truths most essential to understanding him: “For Naná, even silence was music.” He recognized the spiritual value of knowing when to stop speaking and allow space to reveal itself. Silence, in his hands, was never a vacancy. It possessed an almost animal vigilance. Yet he also knew how to fill that space by exposing what had always been stirring inside it. He often returned to a few…