ANATOMY OF AN IMPROVISER: THE STYLE OF NAILOR AZEVEDO “PROVETA”
Manuel Silveira Falleiros
1.1. Musical Experience in the Countryside
Nailor’s musical training followed a typical path in Brazil, particularly among wind instrument players: learning through musical organizations, that is, “Marching Bands”1. It was in this setting that Nailor was exposed to many forms of musical expression. The environment he experienced in his childhood was decisive for his musical development; and the two prominent figures in this environment were: his family and the marching band.
The small town of Leme, in the interior of São Paulo state, was the setting in which the early years of Nailor’s musical life unfolded. A railway station (founded in 1877), which passed through the lands of farmer Manuel Leme, marked the beginning of what would become this town (founded in 1906, with only 800 inhabitants at the time).
Even though it was a small town, musical activity was significant. After all, just 12 years after the town’s founding, the “Theatro Guarany” was inaugurated, featuring an orchestra conducted by Maestro Ângelo Constantino. Under the name of this conductor, three years after the theater’s inauguration, the “Maestro Ângelo Constantino Municipal Musical Corporation” was founded, featuring a band with a regular schedule of rehearsals and performances that involved musicians from the region.
A small town in the countryside, which had an orchestra and its own theater, and a band with its headquarters and bandstand in the square. On May 25, 1961, it was the birthplace of the son of Geraldo Azevedo and Eufrozina Martins Azevedo, who would later be known as “Proveta” (a reference to a “test-tube baby2”).
As if being born in a city where music was a prominent cultural activity were not enough, Nailor’s family was also deeply rooted in musical practice. His father was an accordionist, as was his paternal grandfather, Manoel Joaquim, a descendant of enslaved people. Manoel played the accordion on weekends when he was not occupied with farm labor. However, music was far from a mere leisure pursuit after a day of hard work; it was, in fact, his profession, and he therefore approached it with great seriousness. Nailor’s grandfather was a highly skilled accordionist and particularly demanding in his performance of choros [FN2]:
“… he [the grandfather] was a very demanding accordionist… and he played choro, played at dance events to earn some money, and during the day he worked in the fields, living on a farm.”
In Brazil, there existed a historical phenomenon whereby, for a considerable period, musical practice was virtually an exclusive domain of enslaved Black people. Enslaved individuals with the ability to play instruments or sing held higher market value, enjoyed certain privileges, and also commanded a degree of social prestige. Aware of this value, those who had the opportunity strove to attain the highest possible level of musical proficiency.
As previously noted, Nailor’s father learned the accordion and the fundamentals of music from his own grandfather. He later took private lessons, refined his technique, and mastered other instruments, such as the saxophone, clarinet, and organ.
Nailor frequently emphasizes that he comes “from a tradition,” from “a lineage.” This undoubtedly refers to the musical tradition inherited from his father, who in turn received it from his grandfather. As a descendant of enslaved people, the grandfather likely learned, in addition to technical knowledge, that music could serve as a means to improve one’s living conditions. Nailor recognized from an early age that music should not be treated merely as entertainment.
Within Nailor’s household, musical tradition was not confined to the male members of the family; his four sisters also played musical instruments, each specializing in a different one. Nailor thus came to understand music as a familial and collective endeavor.
His home regularly hosted visits from other musicians from the city and the surrounding region. Nailor consistently paid close attention to the musical discussions his father held with these guests. From childhood, Nailor was present during these conversations as well as during rehearsals:
“… I used to watch my father play; he had a regional ensemble, and some of his friends would come to our house, people from Leme… there was Joãozinho Moraes, who played the cavaquinho, Dito Pires, who played the seven-string guitar, and Vitor Quirino, who played drums… Vitor Quirino was albino, you know, those Black people with albinism, like Hermeto. He lived in Leme, played drums, and also played the snare drum in the band; he was the snare drummer in the Corporação Musical; and there were other friends involved in this scene…”
According to Nailor himself, music “was very natural”; it would be difficult to imagine otherwise, given that his worldview, from a very young age, was surrounded by music on all sides. However, it would be reductive to claim that Nailor ultimately pursued a career as a professional musician solely because the circumstances were favorable.
Even when one grows up in a city where music is a pervasive presence and is born into a musical family, we cannot assert that these factors alone determine the decision to become a professional musician. After all, not all of Nailor’s relatives became musicians, and only Nailor achieved significant professional recognition. In this testimony, Vitor Alcântara explains that the choice to pursue music as a career is often driven by its perception as the most viable option:
“… one thing Proveta had, which was similar for me: necessity. Either you play well to survive, or you go harvest sugarcane, pick cotton, or work as an office boy. There was no other choice; there was no such thing as, ‘I’ll go to college and then figure out what to do.’ It was different: you had to work, earn money, help pay the bills. I was in the same situation.”
However, unlike other musicians, for Nailor there was something that transcended the mere choice of a profession, whether driven by vocation or financial necessity. Recalling a statement made by his father, Nailor offers a reflection on being a musician. This is a comment to which Nailor attaches great importance and which, he says, profoundly marked his life:
“But he [his father] didn’t say that music was the most important thing in the world; he said, ‘Look, let’s play, because that’s what we know how to do’…”
The tone of naturalness that Nailor highlights in his father’s words demonstrates that pursuing music was simply one of many life activities to be undertaken alongside others. Yet, this statement also conveys the message that being a musician is an unquestionable condition. It was, in fact, a condition imposed by tradition: “that’s what we know how to do.” This functioned as a deliberate strategy employed by his father, forging in Nailor a profound connection between his very existence and musical practice. Along the same lines, Nailor received phrases of encouragement combined with expectations: “You can do it; you cannot waste this opportunity.”
This assertion marks the construction of a sense of duty, which would later evolve into a strong commitment to music. This commitment emerged from within him and found fertile ground in the expressions of hope for success coming from his father. As soon as his father recognized that Nailor was responding to this sentiment, he began to more rigorously oversee his son’s musical development.
“You’re going to play there, you’re only ten years old, you have no responsibilities, but your father says, ‘Look, don’t make mistakes!’ And you learn early on that life is like this: you’ll play, you’ll kick your ball around, but you’ll set aside that one hour to do your homework.”
From that point onward, Nailor assumed a role within his family: that of embodying the hope for success. From then on, it becomes evident that the efforts of his relatives began to be directed toward this goal. In this way, his sense of responsibility was steadily reinforced. Vitor Alcântara notes that this dynamic emerged during the years Nailor lived in Leme but persisted thereafter:
“[…] Proveta was the family’s hope, the hope of achieving success.”
Manuel: Do you think he still carries that burden today?
Vitor: He does, yes. He’s always had it; he still carries it.”
Therefore, in order to fulfill the role of representing the hope of musical success within the family, Nailor developed a strong desire not to disappoint that expectation, first before his father, then before his family, and by extension, before society at large, which later expanded to encompass a global perspective. Recognizing this familial commitment, even at a young age, Nailor adopted behaviors that enabled him to reach high levels of instrumental excellence.
His family life was thus permeated by music, and the encouragement from his parents, relatives, and friends was consistently present, aimed at helping Nailor achieve success. For a modest family in a small town, lacking the resources to provide specialized training, music represented a vehicle for intellectual and professional development, a potential source of income, and an activity that compensated for cultural scarcity. This was the familial environment that shaped Nailor’s childhood.
Too small to hold the accordion, Nailor, before the age of seven, would only finger the melodies while his father worked the bellows. Even then, he received praise from his father: “Ah, you have rhythm; I think you’ll study music.”
His formal musical studies began with his enrollment in the “Corporação MusicalÂngelo Concentino” at the age of seven, following his father’s approval, as Nailor was deemed ready to study music precisely because he “had rhythm.” He joined the ensemble as an alto saxophonist.
“… that’s how it was, and at seven years old I joined the band… Maestro Ângelo Concentino Corporação Musical, where Maestro Ari Basciotti was my teacher; he is still alive today. I began studying solfejo, etc…. I know that within six months I understood it perfectly; it was very natural, since I came from a musical family. Before I knew it, I was playing alto saxophone at age seven, performing in the band, and reading [sheet music].”
The city of Leme, as was common in other inland Brazilian towns, hosted a musical corporation that brought together musicians and served as a hub for musical knowledge. This was a standard training ground for many wind instrument players in Brazil. Like Nailor, numerous musicians began their musical education in these wind bands. It was also common for bands to employ instrument and theory teachers, as well as a conductor; however, in most cases, all these roles were fulfilled by a single figure: the Mestre de Banda. The corporation functioned as a nucleus that fostered both musical development and music production. Flutist Marcos Mathey provides insight into their prevalence, sharing his personal experience with wind bands in the interior of São Paulo state:
“[…] every town had its band and its coreto. Every one! […] at least… all the inland towns. I played in the São Sebastião band, I played in Tatuí. Nowadays, they no longer exist; over the past twenty years, more than 500 bands have disappeared in the state of São Paulo alone.”
Although the wind band occupies a more marginalized position in contemporary social contexts, Joel Barbosa highlights its broad reach and historical importance in the training of wind instrumentalists in Brazil:
“The majority of Brazilian wind instrumentalists who work professionally in military bands, civilian bands, or orchestras received their elementary training in bands. Wind bands have been one of the most widely used means of elementary instrumental music education, particularly for wind and percussion instruments, in our country. The number of these institutions surpasses that of music schools; most music schools do not teach wind instruments, and those that do offer only a limited selection. In contrast, bands provide instruction in all the instruments that comprise their ensemble.”
The wind band has been a predominant phenomenon in Brazil since the colonial period. Its roots trace back to military bands, Jesuit ensembles, and also to groups of enslaved Black people who played on sugar and coffee plantations, at least until the abolition of slavery was decreed. At first glance, the band’s function might appear to have been merely to fill the cultural void of plantation life. While it indeed served this purpose, it also functioned to enhance the prestige of landowners, serving as a means to display their wealth and power to society and rival landowners in a game of social ostentation:
“In reality, owning a group of musicians on a plantation, beyond filling a gap in cultural demand—given the distance from cities, where churches and, from the mid-1700s onward, the first opera houses already met this need, albeit imperfectly—gradually came to serve as a loud demonstration of power.”
This was a specific yet widespread scenario across the country. According to testimony found in Bruno Kiefer’s book:
“It was normal, a mark of good taste and a sign of distinction, to have Black choromelleyros¹⁴ listed in the inventory of a wealthy household. Choromelleyros are abundantly cited in processions and public events in general […]. When D. Pedro de Almeida e Portugal visited Minas Gerais in 1717, the Captain-Major of Vila Rica, Henrique Lopes, took special care to please the illustrious Governor-General when inviting him to stay at his residence. He purchased, for a reception event, ‘three Black choromelleyros[…]’”
Following the abolition of slavery, these freed Black individuals migrated to urban centers, integrating into and expanding the ranks of musicians in military corporations, church bands, carnival blocks, and folk festival groups, as well as forming wind bands. These musicians were acutely aware that music was the sole domain through which they could assert their (cultural) superiority over the class that consumed their art. By offering their musical services on festive and commemorative occasions, they found in music a viable source of income.
Even if one might interpret this as a strategy for group autonomy, the band (heir to this subjugated past), while playing a leading role in artistic production and serving as the main cultural attraction in small towns today, remains entangled in a power dynamic directly linked to local government, as Marcos Aurélio de Lima observes:
“In small towns with fewer inhabitants, where the band stands as one of the main artistic attractions, professional politicians, being more easily accessible, generally show greater interest in investing in the band than mayors in capital cities. In small municipalities, mayors view the band as an important tool to promote their administration in political campaigns.”
Therefore, in order to symbolize administrative success, the wind band must maintain an organized structure in which control ensures consistent excellence in the musicians’ performance. In other words, the tension arising from the local government’s desire for the band to represent its administrative success ultimately falls upon the instrumentalist, thereby necessitating the use of disciplinary tools and mechanisms. Coupled with this, and likely leveraging these very mechanisms, the class of musicians pursued actions that functioned as strategies for accumulating cultural capital, which ultimately guaranteed their livelihood. As we can see, the band has retained its role as an instrument of ostentation for the dominant class.
A contemporary of Nailor, Carlos Malaquias, provides a vivid reconstruction of a typical scene within the wind band, offering insight into the disciplinary measures employed by instructors, including punishments and suspensions:
“And the conductors, the teachers, would yell at you if you played around; they’d pull your ear, there was no joking around, you just sat there and didn’t talk; you sat and kept quiet; you were suspended if you caused trouble…” […]
The discipline required in study and the responsibility associated with band performances made participation in the band a source of pride for the parents of young musicians in these ensembles. In other words, beyond its concrete presence in small towns as the primary form of entertainment, the band plays an educational role that extends beyond music, shaping character as well. Carlos Malaquias¹⁸ reflects on his experience regarding discipline and pride:
“That was common, especially in inland towns, a source of pride for the family. The father seeing his son there, even if the father wasn’t a musician, liked it because it also helped with the boy’s discipline—as a person, as a human being, as a musician. In terms of discipline: the boy had that daily lesson to study, that rehearsal schedule to keep. It was real discipline; you had to rehearse every day.”
However, parental support and encouragement for the wind band are not solely due to its role in teaching discipline and providing cultural enrichment through its activities. The band also offers a highly valued form of social supervision for parents:
“For communities, maintaining these groups means not only encouraging musical learning, which is already highly enriching, but also guaranteeing a space where parents know where their children are, what they are doing, and whom they associate with; keeping them away from drugs and marginalization.”
The musical corporation provides physical space for rehearsals, music and instrument lessons, ensemble practice, and a regular performance schedule. From Walmir Gil’s perspective, music was the avenue Nailor’s father found to provide his children with cultural activities in a city with limited options in this area:
“In reality, his father had great foresight. Imagine raising a child in the countryside, in a town with no cultural scene, nothing at all. You had the band to play on Sundays, go to school, and spend the rest of the day playing soccer. Proveta liked to play soccer. His father steered him toward music, not just him, but his sisters played too, and still do; one sister, the eldest, plays clarinet, doesn’t play much anymore because she manages a store, but still plays occasionally, another plays saxophone… it was a way his father found to bring cultural engagement to the family, in a town where there were no movie theaters, no entertainment centers, no clubs, so you make music, you play. And he even accompanied his father to dances at around ten years old, and would occasionally go up on stage and play a tune.”
It was within this environment of pride, discipline, and responsibility in the wind band that Nailor was immersed throughout his childhood and adolescence.
The wind band represents a formative institution that has been highly significant in the Brazilian music scene and of historical importance in the training of instrumentalists, particularly wind players. For Nailor, training within the wind band profoundly shaped his approach to both music and life.
For Nailor, both the wind band and his family represented a clearly defined space of musical knowledge, which was undoubtedly no broader than the musical content of the band’s repertoire itself. Yet, this very limitation fostered a sense of security and confidence in his musical practice (qualities essential for solid learning). After all, music established clear and well-defined boundaries around him, within which he could operate with confidence—a condition Nailor would continue to seek in his future endeavors.
During his childhood in a small town, Nailor had the privilege of experiencing a generally friendly atmosphere among musicians. He was known to everyone and recognized as a skilled instrumentalist. He spent his days with his saxophone, playing at every opportunity and in every setting. He quickly learned how music could provide rewards highly coveted in childhood:
“They say that out in the countryside he would ride his bike with his saxophone hanging around his neck. He’d pass by those little corner stores that sold candy, and the kids would say, ‘Hey Nailor, play that chorofor us!’ And he’d reply, ‘What’ll you give me?’ ‘I’ll give you a candy’… He’d stop, lean his bike, play the chorofor the guy, the guy would hand him the candy, and he’d ride off.”
At around nine or ten years old, Nailor encountered avant-garde musical production for the first time, leaving him astonished by its complexity, refinement, and the technical prowess of the musicians:
“Then one day, another friend from Leme, a saxophonist and a middle-class guy who already had connections in São Paulo, showed up with two records. One was by Frank Rosolino and Bill Holman […]. This record appeared in Leme in 1970… it was mind-blowing, it was surreal: you’d see a horse-drawn cart, and then a jazz record (laughs)! […] So I said, ‘Wow!’ I heard the tenor saxophonist, his name was Richie Kamuca, he played with a famous quartet called the ‘Four Brothers’.”
By adopting this mindset, nothing related to music should be considered inappropriate or impossible for Nailor. The initial awe at novel, complex music—which could shock and paralyze intellectual engagement due to a lack of analytical tools—was gradually tempered, controlled, and replaced by a more analytical approach. His father took care to instill this mindset in Nailor so that he would never feel inferior when confronted with the unfamiliar or with music that seemed to exceed his abilities; rather, he would be equipped to gradually decipher its meaning through his own resources:
“Look, that’s just one way of playing.” It’s a way of playing. It’s not the only way. It’s not the final word. “You need to learn this language; you’ll need it. It’s a tool you’ll use in the future.”
Upon adopting this mindset, Nailor had to work diligently, in his own way, to sustain it: seeking musical knowledge from a wide variety of books and practicing his instrument intensively. In this manner, his father had both prepared and shielded him to navigate musical situations that might initially lie beyond his understanding.
Ultimately, the environment in which Nailor was immersed during his childhood was shaped by two central figures: his family and the wind band. Together, they provided an experience that largely determined his behavior, particularly in practical matters related to the acquisition of musical skills. Among these experiences, the most significant include: a) music as a constant presence in his surroundings; b) pride, high expectations, and discipline as concepts directly tied to his musical experience; c) unwavering family support and the expectation of musical success.
According to Patricia Campbell, the family environment plays a crucial role in musical learning. Her research demonstrates that in households where parents are more engaged with music—whether through singing, playing, or listening—children develop their musical skills more rapidly and with greater sophistication. “[…] environments that provide musical opportunities are beneficial—if not decisive—for development.”
As previously stated, for Nailor, the wind band represented not only a space to begin his training as a musician, enabling practice and musical learning, but also a formative environment for his character and, consequently, his approach to instrumental practice—an approach that borders on devotion due to the imposed discipline. Before a student develops the intrinsic desire to practice, and to do so efficiently, they must first receive extrinsic motivation. In their text General Perspectives on Achieving Musical Excellence, Roger Chaffin and Anthony Lemieux emphasize that the motivation to practice initially originates externally (extrinsically) before gradually becoming increasingly internalized. For Nailor, these initial motivations stemmed from a heavily scheduled routine of musical tasks, even in childhood.
It appears that his drive to become an exceptional instrumentalist was significantly fueled by two demands. First, the need to continue his family’s musical tradition; and second, his responsibility not to disappoint the role he had assumed: embodying the hope of achieving musical success for himself, his family, and society. In the same text, Chaffin and Lemieux describe this behavior as a “hunger for excellence,” that is, an intense concentration aimed at solving a problem and acquiring a skill. According to the authors, this behavior is one of the essential components for achieving instrumental excellence.
Therefore, a series of childhood experiences significantly contributed to the development of behaviors related to Nailor’s musical practice. These, in turn, formed the foundation for consistent learning and the attainment of a high musical level. According to Chaffin and Lemieux, the fundamental characteristics for achieving musical excellence include: concentration, goal setting and identification, constant self-evaluation, strategic use of learning methods, among others. Thus, we can assert that family motivation, the disciplined band environment, and his deep commitment to music led Nailor to adopt behaviors that ultimately defined his success as an exceptional instrumentalist.
In this regard, his father’s dedication was paramount. His father strove to ensure that Nailor remained musically “above average,” assigning him demanding tasks and establishing control mechanisms paired with rewards. In this way, it becomes clear that his father’s role as a teacher was fundamental, and the value of his lessons significantly contributed to the formation of Nailor’s musical conceptions.