Gato Barbieri
Leandro 'Gato' Barbieri (1932-2016) was born in Rosario, Argentina, into a musical family. His uncle was a saxophonist, his brother...
South America
Naná Vasconcelos
Naná Vasconcelos (1944-2016) is a percussionist who was a favourite collaborator of a number of ECM recording artists, including Pat...
Ken ‘Snakehips’ Johnson
Ken 'Snakehips' Johnson (1914-1941) was born in Georgetown, in what was then British Guiana. He attended Queen's College in Georgetown...
Lalo Schifrin
Lalo Schifrin (born 1932) is best known today for his film soundtracks, in particular the memorable 'Mission Impossible' theme, written...
Hugo Fattoruso
Multi-instrumentalist Hugo Fattoruso (born 1943) was a South American pop star before becoming a key figure in the development of...
Hermeto Pascoal
Hermeto Pascoal (born 1936) was born in Lagoa da Canoa, a small muncipality near the Atlantic coast, which was still...
Alex Acuña
Alex Acuña (born 1945) was born in the town of Pativilca in central Peru. His father was a music teacher,...
Frank Holder
Frank Holder (1925-2017) was born in Bridgetown, Guyana and sang as a child at church socials and also when he...
Flora Purim
Flora Purim (born 1942) was born in Rio de Janeiro. She studeied piano and guitar, and then percussion with Airto...
Paloma Efron
Paloma Efron (1912-1977) was Argentina's first professional jazz singer, but is better remembered as a leading broadcast journalist. She grew...
