Milton Nascimento

★★★ Maria Maria FAR OUT. LP

Complex 1976 ballet soundtrack exploring slavery in Brazil.

Milton Nascimento passed through samba bands before joining a group of writers, film-makers and dramatists, yielding more nuanced work that culminated in Clube Da Esquina, his acclaimed 1972 double album, co-written by Lo Borges. Then, following his popular collaboration with Wayne Shorter, the ambitious Maria Maria was the soundtrack to an innovative ballet looking at the legacy of slavery in Brazil, the first production of renowned dance troupe, Grupo Corpo. As the story draws from local folklore and is framed around the fictitious daughter of a local slave, there are abstract percussive numbers like Kitchen and The Pilar, while Lilia brings a whipping into terrible stereophonic focus. Drawing on his formative experience in church choirs, the soaring choral numbers like Sedução and the title track best showcase Nascimento’s impressive vocal range; a minimal command of Portuguese helps navigate narrated interludes but the music works by itself too.