The eight-time Grammy Award-winner worked over the decades with well-known musicians such as Milton Nascimento, Egberto Gismonti, Argentine Gato Barbieri, Paul Simon, BB King, Jan Garbarek, Debbie Harry, Chaka Khan, Don Cherry, Pat Metheny, and Sergio Mendes among many others.

Although he had a wide instrumental range, Juvenal de Hollanda "Naná" Vasconcelos was best known for mastering the berimbao, the single-string percussion instrument from Brazil. Nana once stated :

"When I started to play berimbau differently... the idea came into my mind that instruments have no limitations. This idea came from Jimi Hendrix: instruments have no limitations, and I started to treat music in that way."

His inventiveness with bongos, bells, gourds, maracas and other Afro-Latin musical instruments added a rich and mysterious complexity to the jazz and world music in the 1970s and 1980s.

DownBeat Magazine named Nana Vasconcelos percussionist of the year for seven consecutive years, from 1984 to 1990.

Nana started learning music with his musician father and by the time he was 12 he was playing a drum kit, performing at bars with local groups.

Nana rose to national prominence after he moved to Rio de Janeiro in the 1960s and started playing with singer/songwriter Milton Nascimento.