Hermeto Pascoal, Brazilian Musician Known as ‘The Mad Genius,’ Dies at 89

Hermeto Pascoal, the eccentric and prolific Brazilian multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger known affectionately as “The Sorcerer of Sounds” and “The Mad Genius,” has died. He was 89.

“With serenity and love, we announce that Hermeto Pascoal has passed on to the spiritual realm, surrounded by family and fellow musicians,” his family and team said in a statement late Saturday (Sept. 13) on Instagram.

The statement did not provide a cause of death or say where he had died.

Pascoal was an instantly recognizable figure with his mane of white hair and thick beard. He created music that defied fixed labels and blended jazz, samba, Brazilian popular music (MPB), bossa nova, chorinho and forro.

An accomplished pianist, accordionist and flautist, Pascoal also used more unconventional objects to produce sounds, including pints of beer, dolls, body parts, tea cups, and — perhaps most famously — live pigs.

On his 1977 album Slaves Mass, Pascoal squeezed a piglet to make it squeal for the opening of a track. A photo of him with the animal in his arms appeared on its back cover.

Born on June 22, 1936, in Alagoas, a state in Brazil’s poor northeast, his albino condition allowed him to escape working in the fields under the harsh sun. He taught himself to play his father’s accordion instead.

At age 14, Pascoal moved with his family to the port city of Recife, where he continued to develop his skills and performed on local radio stations.

He later headed to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. During the 1960s, he worked with drummer and percussionist Airto Moreira, who took Pascoal on tour to the U.S., where he met Miles Davis. Pascoal played on Davis’ 1971 album Live-Evil.

The meeting with Miles kickstarted an international career that continued well into Pascoal’s 80s.
“I was born music; I haven’t done anything without music,” he told Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo in 2024. “What I write on a toilet bowl is as important as what I write on any paper, because music is sacred.”

As noted by the Barbican, a London venue where Pascoal was due to play in November, the artist was known as an “iconic Brazilian composer” who created more than 10,000 compositions.

Tributes for Pascoal poured in after the announcement of his death.

“Brazilian music and culture owe a great deal to Hermeto Pascoal,” President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil said Saturday on X. Pascoal’s “talent and tireless creativity (…) earned him international acclaim and influenced generations of musicians around the world,” he added.

Caetano Veloso said on Instagram that Pascoal is “one of the highest points in the history of music in Brazil.”

Pascoal leaves behind six children.