(audience applauding) (audience member cheers)
- Thank you so much.
Thank you all.
It's a great pleasure to be here, of course, this morning
to rightfully celebrate the class of '23, congratulations.
And to recognize the contributions
of five remarkable artists and leaders.
As Damian said, "these esteemed honorees
have been inextinguishable beacons of aspiration
and of inspiration for us all."
I'm going to speak about Hermeto Pascoal.
But I must offer a personal salute to my long time friend
really, my brother and fellow alum, Mr. Wendell Pierce.
Man, we met when I was a junior in high school
and you were a freshman.
And I'm not gonna look at him because I'll get full.
(audience laughs)
And you are now much more of what you were then.
Intelligent, full of talent,
ready to pay the price to contribute,
and deeply, deeply soulful.
When you walk into a room, it's an act of soul.
I love you.
And I appreciate the opportunity to publicly celebrate you.
I'm so glad to be here today.
Now I have the honor of turning to the master
Hermeto Pascoal, and I'm gonna take my time
because I enjoy doing this.
(audience laughs) (audience member cheers)
You are known universally as o Bruxo, The Sorcerer.
Every musician who has worked with you
throughout your long career
has been forever touched by your magic.
You're a towering central figure
in the history of Brazilian music.
Though your influence and your creativity is felt
in every corner of the world.
You were born in Arapiraca, a small and poor rural village
in the semi-arid northeast of Brazil.
Drawn to the sounds of nature From a very early age
you actually created a flute from a pumpkin stem
to play for the birds around your home.
As a small child you took spare materials from the shop
of your blacksmith grandfather and used them to make music.
At the age of seven you experimented
with your father's accordion.
Those explorations started an eight decade musical ascension
as a composer, arranger, band leader
and multi-instrumentalist.
When you moved to the big southern cities of Sao Paulo
and Rio de Janeiro in the fifties and sixties
during the height of the Bossa Nova Movement.
With your talent and restlessness
you changed the international soundscape forever
expanding the harmonic aspirations of Bossa Nova
to heighten tensions and deepen resolutions
with evermore fundamental and complex forms.
Y'all just heard it, fantastic example of it.
You also brought sounds previously considered non-musical
like natural noises and the myriad recurring timbres of life
right into the mainstream of Brazilian music.
In addition to your enormous abilities as an improviser
you also contributed to a quantitative
and qualitative leap in the scoring of your country's music.
And even though your sight is impaired by congenital myopia
you were just a compulsive composer
with a constant flow of fresh ideas
which you write on paper napkins, concert programs, hats.
You even gave me some tennis shoes with a composition on it.
(audience laughs)
And you draw your compositions like artwork
on the walls that you passed.
Every day anyway, anywhere and everywhere
you write with intensity
and with a burning unquenchable fury.
Man, (chuckles) (audience members laugh)
your colorful and diverse music
has transformed the percussion universe.
Before you, great percussionist thought mainly of rhythm
and groove, but you opened up this traditional concept
and encouraged them to introduce new sounds
that brought images, landscapes and atmospheres
of everything from the sounds of birds,
to the hollowing of nocturnal animals,
to the organized chaos of a popular marketplace.
Exalted master, Hermeto Pascoal,
your music goes far beyond any one style
to encompass choro, baiao, bossa nova, maracatu, frevo
and a wholly original jazz and symphonic palette
where improvising meets rigorous written forms.
You've said, "I don't play one style
I play nearly all of them."
Where you've mastered multiple traditional instruments
but you also play teacups, wood found objects,
whatever catches your imagination.
You even caught on the recording hamboning on a high
and low pitch couple of actual pigs.
(audience laughs) This is true.
You know. (chuckles)
Throughout your career
you've created numerous definitive groups.
You've collaborated with musicians like Flora Purim,
Gilberto Gil, and Miles Davis.
You've also worked with every major Brazilian musician.
Yet on your most recent tours you spotlight and celebrate
the very youngest musicians
and celebrate the younger generation.
You've been honored with multiple Grammy awards
and have played at every major international festival
in the world traveling across
North and South America, Europe and Asia.
We are immensely fortunate that you graced us
with a residency in Juilliard Jazz this winter
that resulted in two complete programs of your music.
It was elevatory and transformative
for students and teachers alike.
Old Brazilian bard of rhythm and tune,
you embrace the entire world of music
with boundless joy and imagination.
You've said, "it comes from the universe
that's why I call it musica universal.
It's an energy that never stops,
it hovers over us wherever we are."
Mr. Hermeto Pascoal, you call everyone you see "The Champ."
But you are the true champion an actual wizard and sorcerer
whose music has given our world
a much more comfortable seat in the cosmos.
Obrigado.
(audience cheers and applauds)
(audience cheers and applause continues)
(audience members shout) (audience cheers and applauds)