There are musicians and then “meta-musicians” — those beyond professional tropes, who live and breathe what they do, fostering a family of dedicated disciples. This rarified breed includes such “larger than life” personas, occupying distinct self-styled genres, as Sun Ra, Fela Kuti, Lee Perry, George Clinton and Frank Zappa.
Brazilian multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal might possess something of Zappa’s zaniness, virtuosity, melodic idiosyncrasy and oddball humor but occupies a class entirely his own. Miles Davis recognized that, inviting the diminutive musical Merlin to record several enigmatic ballads on “Live/Evil” (1970), to which Pascoal contributed vocals, whistles, drums and electric piano, sharing the Columbia studio with burgeoning jazz/rock fusion pioneers Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea.
