Naná Vasconcelos - Amazonas

Originally recorded in 1973 at Rio de Janeiro's Phonogram Studios, 'Amazonas' remains one of the rarest entries in Nana Vasconcelos' catalogue. Largely a solo endeavour, it finds the Brazilian percussionist weaving berimbau, hand percussion and voice into a sound rooted in shifting, multi-directional polyrhythms. There is a raw, exploratory quality throughout as rhythm is treated as a storytelling narrative as much as a provider of movement. Vasconcelos would later collaborate with Jon Hassell, Don Cherry in Codona and Pat Metheny, yet this recording captures him in stark solo mode and utterly unfiltered. Its sense of space and intuition is as radical as ever all these years on.