Joel Nascimento "O Passaro" (EMI, 1978)
A mixed bag. This opens with a sweet, elegant, fado-styled instrumental, "Nao Sei Porque," then slides into jazzier terrain, as well as some super-goopy orchestral numbers. These instrumental tracks are all led by choro mandolinist Joel Nascimento, the spiritual descendant of master picker Jacob Do Bandolim. It's mellow and pleasant, though saccharine in places, and the balance between the good, the bad and the gooey is a bit disconcerting. Nascimento's technical virtuosity is impressive throughout, though, and if you're a fan of mandolin music or choro as a genre, then this disc is one you'll want to track down. (Reissued in 2003 on a 2-Em-1 CD, along with the Meu Sonho album below.)

Joel Nascimento "Meu Sonho" (EMI, 1978)
This disc is very similar to the O Passaro album, a mix of wonderful modernized choro, funky jazz fusion tracks, and rather lamentable orchestral numbers, full of swelling, overripe string arrangements. If you pick and choose yout way through the two albums, you'd come up with about an album's worth of fine material, pleasing to the ears and dazzling to the mind... But the stuff in between can be kind of hard to take.

Milton Nascimento - see artist discography

Jovino Santos Neto "Caboclo" (Liquid City, 1997)
The first solo album by multi-instrumentalist Jovino Santos Neto, a longtime veteran of Hermeto Pascoal's band. Light, breezy jazz, mainly built around tight piano-flute duets, with sympathetic accompaniment from a small jazz combo, and in large part a tribute to his mentor. Not really my cup of tea, but pretty solid for the style. I could certainly see how folks into the whole "dinner jazz" sound might like this. (For more information about Neto and his career, check out his website.)

Jovino Santos Neto & Richard Boukas "Balaio" (Malandro, 2001)
Mellow and accomplished acoustic jazz featuring original compositions by New-York based guitarist Richard Boukas and Brazilian pianist, Jovino Santos Neto. There are also a trio of tunes by Braz-jazz legend Hermeto Pascoal, whose band Jovino Santos Neto performed in for much of the 1990s... The vibe is kind of a cross between John McLaughlin and Milton Nascimento -- Boukas scats in a very Milton-like fashion, although with more restraint and precision. These tunes are generally very sprightly; overall this isn't my cup of tea, but it's very nice for the style, and if you like acoustic jazz, you might enjoy this disc...

Jovino Santos Neto "Roda Carioca" (Adventure Music, 2006)
A straightforward, all-instrumental smooth jazz set, with a solid Brazilian bossamba foundation... Pianist Jovino Santos Neto leads this lively set, with a top-flight cast of Brazilian jazz players behind him. A lot of this is too jazzy for me, but there are flourishes that stand out, such as Hamilton Da Holanda's swinging, choro mandolin riffs on "Gente Boa," and Joyce's guest vocals on the song, "Nana." Brazil's leading avant jazz artist, Hermeto Pascoal, also plays on one track (playing a chewing gum wrapper and a glass of water, among other things!) Mainly this is a showcase for Santos Neto's brisk piano work, which at some times if quite lyrical and at others is a little too rat-a-tat-tat for me. Most soft jazz fans will probably like this, though... Worth checking out, if modern Braz-jazz is your bag.

Wilson Das Neves - see Letter "D"