Creed Taylor Produced

September 15th see the appointment and celebration of the 2026 National Endowment for the Arts – Jazz Masters in the class of 2026. Among those this year is CTI All-Star, Airto Moreira ^[1]https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz/airto-moreira.

[This post has been updated to include the video of the 2026 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert. Also, detail is added on some of Airto’s awards. There must be awards I am missing, please get in touch I would like to add these to Airto’s Wikipedia entry.]

Airto Moreira ^[2]https://web.archive.org/web/20161030102723/http://www.airto.com/ is one of the most influential percussionists in the history of modern jazz, a musician whose imagination reshaped the role of rhythm in contemporary music. He is though so much more than a percussionist, he is a drummer, composer, educator and most importantly, an innovator.

Here is something to listen to while you read. The complete set is two hours 30-minutes. The two tracks are unrelated and separate. One is from an NPR broadcast, the second and longer set is from a music mix broadcast by ESMAVC (Internet) Radio Station. Enjoy!

National Endowment for the Arts

The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is the nation’s top honor for jazz artists. Since 1982, it has welcomed a select group of living legends each year, recognizing those who’ve made outstanding contributions to the growth and evolution of jazz.

The National Endowment for the Arts presents a free tribute concert featuring performances in honor of the 2026 Jazz Masters, recipients of the nation’s highest honor in jazz: Carmen Lundy, Airto Moreira, Patrice Rushen, and A.B. Spellman, NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy recipient Rhonda Hamilton. Hosted by the chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, Mary Anne Carter (Note: Rhonda Hamilton and Carmen Lundy will participate in this event; however, Airto Moreira and Patrice Rushen are unable to attend but will have special performances in their honor.)

As noted, Airto won’t personally be able to attend but the tribute performance should be great. Tickets for the free event are no longer available for the live event held at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday, September 15 • Starts at 8 PM (Pacific time). There will though be a live stream of the event ^[3]https://www.arts.gov/honors/jazz.

Here is a video from the 2026 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert. The segment on Airto is first.

Airto Moreira – The back story

As always, in these bio’s of artists, I don’t claim to write the complete story, just to highlight key events and details, also recordings and topics not found elsewhere. In the case of Airto, this includes almost his entire recording career with Creed Taylor. In other biographical sketches his albums are covered, but much of his entire contribution is overlooked.

Born in Itaiópolis, Brazil, on August 5, 1941, he grew up in Curitiba where his instinct for percussion appeared almost immediately. As a youngeter, he won local music contests and earned his own weekly radio program, a remarkable early sign of the creative force he would become.

As a teenager, Airto became a working musician. At thirteen he was performing professionally, and by sixteen he had moved to São Paulo where he played in nightclubs and appeared on television as a percussionist, drummer, and singer. These early years were shaped by the rich musical environment of Brazil, a place where samba, baião, maracatu, and Afro‑Brazilian ritual traditions were part of everyday life. Airto absorbed all of it.

Airto’s first recording credit came in 1963 on the Antonio Guimarães album “O Fabuloso Guimarães e seu Conjunto em Ritmos de Dança, Vol. 1” which seems to translate to “FABULOSO – VOL 1 – Guimaraes and His Ensemble in Dance Rhythms.” ^[4]https://www.discogs.com/artist/14068-Airto-Moreira?redirected=true&superFilter=Credits His earliest mention in the U.S. press, that I could find, was this snippet in the Brazil column, in the international section of Cash Box magazine, where he would continue to be covered in 1966.

It notes that “Luiz Mocarzel, who is promoting the new label of Sebastião Bastos Som/Maior, informs us about the new releases of the company: a second and even better album by the MPM group Sansa Trio ^[5]https://www.discogs.com/artist/1069664-Sansa-Trio (José Briamonte, Airto, and José Ordoñez). More of the best MPM style is in another album by César Camargo Mariano, formerly with the Sambalango Trio (husband of popular songstress Mariza), and still another disc in which this excellent pianist rejoins his old instrumental group Reencontro Com Sambalango Trio, with Humberto Clayber and drummer Airto.” ^[6]Cash Box – January 29th, 1966, Pg65.

Remarkably, Airto appeared on the cover of Cash Box magazine’s International section in June 1966, as a participant in the 2nd National Festival of Brazilian Popular Music – seen here in the picture on the left of the middle row. While clean-shaven and formally dressed, Airto’s eyes and smile are unmistakable.

Airto was one of a number of artists at the festival who won an award for translating songs. Also worth note here is the picture bottom right, which features Milton Nascimento singing at the microphone. Both men would appear on Creed Taylor produced A&M/CTI albums in the next couple of years.

Airto Moreira gained international recognition with the group Quarteto Novo ^[7]https://www.discogs.com/artist/83735-Quarteto-Novo, which was noted for its fusion of baião, samba, and modern jazz in 1967. Airto is described as the “sparkplug” of the group in Flora Purim’s biography ^[8]Freedom Song – The Story Of Flora Purim. Edward Bunker and Flora Purim – Berkley Books, ISBN: 0-425-05455-1

Airto and Flora Purim met first at a rehearsal audition for Flora in the San Sebastian Bar in Sao Paulo in 1965. By late 1966 followed later by Airto in 1967. 1968 is the most common used year for their migration to the USA, this is because Airto spent time out on California and Flora in New York and later a long residency at a hotel in Mexico. Their initial foray into the NYC jazz scene was difficult, Flora initially doing better than Airto. However, by 1969 the era of Airto percussion had arrived ^[9]It is worth remembering that for much of the 1960s, Brazil was politically unstable and for much of the second half of the decade was under military control..

It was announced in April 1970 that Airto had been signed by SKYE Records for whom he recorded his first solo album. Skye had been founded just months earlier by Norman Schwartz, Gabor Szabo, Cal Tjader and Gary McFarland.

SKYE faced financial difficulties by late 1970 and leased its masters to Buddah, joining “The Buddah Group.” Tjader and Szabo left, while McFarland continued to manage the label ^[10]Skye deserves its own breakdown at some point, especially in relation to Gary McFarland and his untimely death in 1971. Skye was in some ways a cross between what Creed Taylor and Bob Thiele were … Continue reading.

Buddah/Skye released a short series of four albums but produced very few new albums afterward, including Airto’s debut ( Airto recorded a second album for Buddah, self-produced “Seeds On The Ground – The Natural Sounds Of Airto”.

He also released his own albums, combining Brazilian traditions with jazz and world music influences. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Airto became a highly sought-after percussionist, collaborating with various artists and contributing to numerous film scores. His partnership with Purim led to the formation of their group Fingers, enhancing the fusion of Brazilian identity and jazz.

Later in life, he continued to teach and perform, receiving recognition from the Brazilian government for his cultural contributions. Airto’s legacy lies in his transformative approach to rhythm in improvisation, showcasing the potential of percussion in music.

On November 15th 2024 at 6:28 PM, under the full moon, at the residence of Ricardo and Manoela Bacelar in Fortaleza, Ceara – A non-denomenation religious ceremony was held for the renewal of the wedding vows of Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Airto and Flora reaffirmed their commitments of respect, care and compasionship in an intimate moment witnessed by friends.

More recently, Airto has been suffering from health problems which almost certainly is why he will not be attending the NEA Jazz Master ceremony. I posted about his diffuclties back in 2023 as part of #AirtoFloraDay – since then, more than $20,000 dollars has been donated. The appeal is still open and stands at $59,930.

If you purchased your Airto and/or Flora albums “used” they would have received nothing from that. Please consider donating or if you already have, donate again. I donated today to push the total over $60,000 – any donation helps.

The Creed Taylor Connection

In most biographies of Airto, his first jazz work in New York is often quoted as with bassist Walter Booker and later Joe Zawinul, who in turn introduced him to Miles Davis and this leads to his work on Miles Davis groundbreaking album Bitches Brew. The jazz patriarchy typically goes on to discuss his work with the jazz fusion movement through his work with Weather Report and Return to Forever ^[11]Even encyclopedia.com does this. In Fact, they even get the recording/release dates wrong for “Bitches Brew” using 1968. … Continue reading

Airto recorded as a leader on two CTI albums, with a 3rd – Virgin Land on Creed Taylor’s Salvation label. This album is arguably his best recorded at least in the auspices of Creed Taylor, but in this instance, produced fellow drummer, Billy Cobham ^[12]https://www.discogs.com/master/201537-Airto-Virgin-Land. Two of the tracks from this album are also included on “The Best Of Airto,” a post CTI compilation released in Germany but widely available in Europe ^[13]https://www.discogs.com/release/3595014-Airto-The-Best-Of-Airto ^[14]It is not clear to me why a compilation the same or similar can’t be released of Airto’s CTI work. It could be that the now-defunct Creed Taylor International still holds the recording … Continue reading

If Ron Carter was the bedrock of CTI/KUDU recordings, Airto was a close second. In total, by my count, Airto appeared on some 40 CTI/KUDU albums as a sideman in addition to the albums recorded as a leader. Among those albums are classics of their time including Deodato’s Prelude; Don Sebesky’s Giant Box; Freddie Hubbard’s First Light and Sky Dive; Grover Washington Jr’s Inner City Blues; Paul Desmond’s Sumnmertime – a complete list can be found at the end of the post, sorted in session start date order.

Awards

As well as the NEA 2026 Jazz Master recognition, Airto has the following awards.

The American Dream Failed

In her biography Freedom Song – The Story of Flora Purim ^[15]Edward Bunker and Flora Purim, Berkley Books, ISBN: 0-425-05455-1, Flora Purim recalls an extremely difficult period for and Airto following a drug bust on September 23, 1971, in which she was implicated. At her bail hearing, Airto showed up despite their lawyer, John Barker – recommended by a CTI executive – advising him not to. Simply for attending, he was arrested as well, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was cracking down on Brazilians.

Airto and his attorney had Creed Taylor post bail, though the biography mentions $50,000 without clarifying if that bail was either higher or lower than that when set. Airto spent 12 days in detention before attorney Barker secured his release for $3,000. In 1974, Flora was sentenced to three years in prison in California. Her Wikipedia notes don’t fully capture how terrible her imprisonment must have been ^[16]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Purim#Imprisonment_and_FCI_Terminal_Island_concert.

During the period between arrest and conviction, Airto and Flora continued to perform, and as can be seen from the table below, this included many CTI albums including Airto’s Fingers. They also performed and recorded with Chick Corea’s new band, Return To Forever and also Santana – Flora also worked with producer Orrin Keepnews on album tracks ^[17]Flora’s imprisonment received no coverage in either the music press or national newspapers until The Los Angeles Times published a small piece in its “Radio Briefs” column about a … Continue reading. As a result of Flora’s unjust imprisonment, Airto and their daughter, Diana moved to California to be able to visit and to be there when Flora was eventually released on parole, good behavior etc.

Rhythmstick

At the Van Gelder Studio (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey), June 19-21, 1989, and released in October 1990, the Rythmstick project was recorded and filmed. It was both technically ahead of its time and a fascinating gathering of historic jazz musicians. Among them were Airto and Flora.

I wrote about it in an early ctproduced.com post (2020).

CTI All-Stars 2009

Airto’s final CTI performance came when he joined the CTI All-Stars tour in 2009/2010. A CD and DVD were released from one of the performances. What’s clear, even some 30-years later, is that Airto was way ahead of his time. His percussion and instrumentation, whistles, cymbals etc. fit entirely into the electronic digital audio workstation (DAW) era.

The Creed Taylor Sessions

Many of the studio sessions were on multiple days. Here, the first day or month is used as a general timeline of the Creed Taylor sessions that Airto performed at.

Note, albums shown in italic in the following table were NOT produced by Creed Taylor. They are listed here as a point of cross reference. It’s also worth noting that this session timeline does not include touring dates or other studio sessions.

What is your favorite and why? Also, have I missed any?

UPDATES:
Sept. 8th, 2026 – minor tidy-up and corrections
Sept. 9th, 2026 – resolved minor issue with footnote