Hailing from Brazil, the inventive percussionist and drummer Airto Moreira, also known as Airto, first gained notice in the early 1960s through performances in samba, bossa, and Brazilian jazz. After relocating to the United States he released key solo recordings such as the 1972 landmark Free, which merged Brazilian traditions with modal jazz, funk, and fusion. Having apprenticed under Cannonball Adderley, he became part of Miles Davis’ ensemble for six landmark albums including Bitches Brew and On the Corner. A founding member of Return to Forever, he also performed with the fusion supergroup Weather Report and accumulated nearly 1,300 recording credits across countless sessions. Beginning in the early 1970s he issued dozens of albums with his spouse, the iconic Brazilian vocalist Flora Purim, among them 1973’s Fingers, 2001’s Perpetual Emotion, and 2017’s Aluê. In 2023 BBE released the career retrospective Airto & Flora, A Celebration: 60 Years – Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories.
Born in 1941 in Itaiopolis, Brazil, Moreira spent his childhood in Curitiba, where he started singing and playing percussion while still very young. By age six he had already won music contests and built local renown. He later hosted a regional radio program and at thirteen performed his first professional engagement. At sixteen he relocated to São Paulo, where he played drums and percussion and sang with various bands and established artists on the nightclub circuit while also making television appearances. His recorded debut came as part of the pioneering samba group Sambalanço Trio alongside pianist Cesar Camargo Mariano and bassist Humberto Clayber on 1964’s Samblues. Additional early sessions featured artists such as Wanda Sá, Raul de Souza, and Hermeto Pascoal.
During that era he met vocalist Flora Purim while working in Rio de Janeiro, and the two married in 1972. In 1967 the couple moved to the United States and settled in New York City. There he connected with bassist Walter Booker, who introduced him to jazz figures including Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Paul Desmond, and Joe Zawinul. He joined the Adderley group and, through Zawinul, secured an invitation to perform on Miles Davis’ landmark 1970 fusion album Bitches Brew. He stayed with the trumpeter for the next two years, appearing on sessions such as On the Corner, Live/Evil, and Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East. After leaving Davis he joined Weather Report while simultaneously entering the first lineup of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever with Purim, contributing to Return to Forever and Light as a Feather in 1972. One of the era’s busiest fusion musicians, Moreira appeared on dozens of albums throughout the 1970s, including Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay, Joe Henderson’s In the Pursuit of Blackness, and Eumir Deodato’s Prelude. He also worked outside jazz circles with artists such as Chaka Khan, Tina Turner, and Average White Band. In recognition of his influence after arriving in the United States, Down Beat magazine introduced a percussion category to its readers’ and critics’ polls in 1973, an honor he has received more than twenty times since.
As a leader Moreira debuted with 1970’s Natural Feelings, featuring his wife Purim, bassist Ron Carter, and Brazilian colleagues Sivuca and Hermeto Pascoal. Further releases followed with 1972’s Seeds on the Ground and the now-classic 1972 Free, issued on CTI with brass arrangements by Don Sebesky and contributions from Purim, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Hubert Laws, Joe Farrell, and George Benson. These projects blended Brazilian traditions with western funk, fusion, and modal jazz. Comparable cross-pollinated recordings continued through the decade, including 1973’s Fingers, 1975’s Identity, and the 1979 Grammy-nominated Touching You Touching Me. He also appeared on nearly every Purim album of the period, among them 1973’s Butterfly Dreams, 1976’s Open Your Eyes You Can Fly, and 1979’s Carry On.
Over the following decade Moreira sustained extensive studio activity after moving to California, collaborating with George Duke, Corea, Jarrett, Leon Ware, Paul Simon, Bobby Hutcherson, and others. He and Purim maintained leadership of their own ensembles, releasing Three-Way Mirror in 1985 with Joe Farrell and The Magicians in 1986. Moreira also issued two albums on New York’s Montuno label: 1986’s Aqui Se Puede and 1989’s Samba de Flora. The couple joined Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart on several projects, including 1989’s Däfos and the 1991 Grammy-winning world-music album Planet Drum, alongside conga player Giovanni Hidalgo, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, Indian percussionist Vikku Vinayakram, and Nigerian percussion masters Babatunde Olatunji and Sikiru Adepoju.
In 1992 Moreira and Purim performed with Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra on the Grammy-winning concert recording Live at the Royal Festival Hall. He returned to his own catalog with 1993’s Killer Bees, which included vocals and production by Purim along with contributions from Gary Meek and Hiram Bullock, followed by Jump in 1995. The pair formed the expansive Fourth World ensemble featuring José Neto on guitar, Gary Brown on bass, and Jovino Santos on keyboards and flute. Additional sessions took place with Al Di Meola, Dianne Reeves, and Carlos Santana.
In the 2000s Moreira expanded into teaching as a professor in the Ethnomusicology department at UCLA while continuing to record. Homeless appeared in 2000 with vocals from their daughter Diana Moreira Booker. She, married to percussionist and instrumentalist Krishna Booker, son of Walter Booker, also appeared on 2003’s Life After That. Around the same period, in acknowledgment of their contributions to Brazil’s international relations, the couple received induction into the Order of Rio Branco from President Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Moreira next collaborated with pianist Jacob Anderskov on 2008’s Ears to the Ground.
Aluê arrived in 2017, again featuring Moreira Booker as well as Fourth World member José Neto and others, and included a re-recorded version of the title track that had originally appeared on 1971’s Seeds on the Ground. In 2022 Moreira joined the studio cast on Gretchen Parlato’s Flor, and Purim’s If You Will prominently featured their daughter Diana. England’s BBE label issued the multi-disc career retrospective Airto & Flora, A Celebration: 60 Years – Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories in November 2023.
