*** Milton Nascimento

NASCIMENTO

(Warner Bros.)

This master of Brazilian pop song goes on and on, creating profound and encompassing aural views of the world with warmth and grace. He regales us with drums on "Minas Drums," yodels as we canter across the pampas, lets us peek into his bestiary to see a marching "Praying Mantis," a wistful "Nightingale." A modern Black Orpheus, he leads us into the depths to revisit the shade of Wayne Shorter's "Ana Maria," with a Wayne-like soprano sax from Nivaldo Ornelas, here and on "Cuerpo y Alma" (a New World "Body and Soul"). Like Charon, this minister of lost memory rows us across "Old Man River," with the depth of feeling and soul of Paul Robeson, washing away our earthly cares and pain. He can sing anything, in any language, and among so many false preachers, he is real. I hate to admit it, but whenever I hear this guy sing, I want to scream like a teenage girl, longing for his sweet truth.

-- Fred Bouchard