Airto Moreira is a Brazilian percussionist, drummer and singer, who gained worldwide recognition after being a member of the Miles Davis group from 1969 to 1971. His further collaborations include an extensive list of jazz and rock stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, Hermeto Pascoal, Jaco Pastorius and Grateful Dead, among many others. As a solo artist, Airto has released 21 CDs, including his latest album “Aluê”.
Airto Moreira was born in Itaiópolis, Brazil, into a family of folk healers, and raised in Curitiba. Showing an extraordinary talent for music at a young age, he became a professional musician at age 13. He moved to São Paulo three years later, became a member of the samba-jazz pioneer group Sambalanço Trio, and formed the legendary Quarteto Novo with Hermeto Pascoal in 1967.
Airto’s contribution as a percussionist to the jazz world was so powerful that Downbeat magazine created the category of percussion to its readers and critics polls, which he has won over twenty times since 1973. He was also voted number one percussionist by Jazz Times, Modern Drummer, Drum Magazine, Jazzizz Magazine, Jazz Central Station’s Global Jazz Poll on the Internet, as well as in many European, Latin American and Asian publications.
