The brilliant multi-instrumentalist and composer Hermeto Pascoal, who has died aged 89, beguiled the world with fusions of north-Brazilian rural music, jazz and contemporary-classical forms, and mimicry of all manner of forest and city sounds.
If ever a contemporary musician deserved to be called a force of nature, it was Pascoal. His music swept across languages and cultures as if all their differences had retreated in admiration at the universality of the sounds he made. He was fondly known in Brazil as “O Bruxo” – the Sorcerer. Pascoal’s Methuselah-like beard, tumult of white hair, and personal dialect of exultant shouts, cackles and coaxing gesticulations with his favourite hats, substantiated that title.
