Airto Guimorvan Moreira was born on August 5, 1941. He is a Brazilian musician who plays drums, composes music, and performs on percussion instruments. He is married to Flora Purim, a jazz singer, and they have a daughter named Diana Moreira, who is also a singer. Airto became well-known in the late 1960s as part of the Brazilian group Quarteto Novo. Later, he moved to the United States and played jazz fusion with famous musicians and groups, including Miles Davis, Return to Forever, Weather Report, and Santana.

Biography

Airto Moreira was born in Itaiópolis, Brazil, into a family of traditional healers. He grew up in Curitiba and São Paulo. He showed a special talent for music at a young age and became a professional musician at 13. He first gained attention as a member of the samba jazz group Sambalanço Trio and for his work with Hermeto Pascoal in Quarteto Novo in 1967. Soon after, he moved to the United States with his wife, Flora Purim.

After arriving in the U.S., Moreira studied with Moacir Santos in Los Angeles. He later moved to New York, where he began performing with jazz musicians, including bassist Walter Booker. Through Booker, Moreira met Joe Zawinul, who introduced him to Miles Davis. At this time, Davis was exploring new music styles that combined electronic instruments with rock and funk rhythms, a form later called jazz fusion. Moreira participated in several key projects of this style and worked with Davis for about two years.

After leaving Davis, Moreira joined other former Davis musicians, including Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, and Miroslav Vitous, in their group Weather Report. He played percussion on their first album in 1971. He left Weather Report, and Dom Um Romão and Muruga Booker joined the group for their Sweetnighter album. Moreira then joined Chick Corea’s new band, Return to Forever, and played drums on their first two albums: Return to Forever and Light as a Feather in 1972.

Moreira contributed to many world music/percussion albums by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, including The Apocalypse Now Sessions, Däfos, Supralingua, and Planet Drum, which won a World Music Grammy in 1991. He played congas on Eumir Deodato’s 1970s space-funk song "Also sprach Zarathustra" from the album Prelude.

Moreira performed with many jazz musicians, including Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Paul Desmond, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, John McLaughlin, Keith Jarrett, Al Di Meola, Zakir Hussain, George Duke, and Mickey Hart.

In addition to music, he composed and contributed music for films and television. He performed at the re-opening of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt with fellow ethnomusicology professor Halim El-Dabh. He also taught at UCLA and the California Brazil Camp.

In 1996, Moreira and Flora Purim worked with P.M. Dawn on the song "Non-Fiction Burning" for the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio, produced by the Red Hot Organization.

In 2022, it was announced on the Flora Purim & Airto Moreira Facebook page that Moreira was experiencing serious health issues and that Flora was now his full-time caregiver. Their daughter, Niura, created a GoFundMe page to raise money to help pay for Moreira’s medical care.

Awards

• Moreira was named the top percussionist in "Down Beat Magazine's Critics Poll" for the years 1975 through 1982 and again in 1993.
• In September 2002, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso honored Moreira and Purim by adding them to the "Order of Rio Branco," which is one of Brazil's most respected awards.

Discography

• Natural Feelings (Buddah, 1970)
• Seeds On the Ground (Buddah, 1971)
• Free (CTI, 1972)
• Fingers (CTI, 1973)
• Virgin Land (Salvation, 1974)
• In Concert with Eumir Deodato (CTI, 1974)
• Identity (Arista, 1975)
• Promises of the Sun (Arista, 1976)
• I'm Fine, How Are You? (Warner Bros., 1977)
• Touching You… Touching Me (Warner Bros., 1979)
• Flora Purim & Airto Moreira Live at the Hollywood Bowl 1979 (1979)
• Däfos with Mickey Hart (Reference, 1983)
• Misa Espiritual (Harmonia Mundi, 1983)
• Latino/Aqui Se Puede (Sobocode, 1984)
• Three-Way Mirror (Reference, 1985)
• Humble People with Flora Purim (Concord Jazz, 1985)
• The Magicians with Flora Purim (Crossover, 1986)
• Airto Moreira & Flora Purim Live at Jazzfest Bremen 1988 (1988)
• The Colours of Life with Flora Purim (In+Out, 1988)
• Samba de Flora (Montuno, 1989)
• The Sun Is Out with Flora Purim (Crossover, 1987)
• Struck by Lightning (Venture, 1989)
• The Other Side of This (Rykodisc, 1992)
• Killer Bees (B&W Music, 1993)
• Homeless (M.E.L.T., 2000)
• Revenge of the Killer Bees (M.E.L.T., 2000)
• Life After That (Narada, 2003)
• The Boston Three Party with Chick Corea , Eddie Gomez (Stretch, 2007)
• Live in Berkeley – Airto Moreira & Flora Purim (Airflow, 2012)
• Aluê (Selo, 2017)
• Eu canto assim (NoRPM, 2021)
• Aqui, Oh! with Ricardo Bacalar & Flora Purim (2026)

• Sambalanço Trio (Audio Fidelity, 1964)
• Improviso Negro (Ubatuqui, 1965)
• Reencontro com Sambalanço Trio (Som Maior, 1965)

• Recorded Live At Ronnie Scott's Club (Ronnie Scotts Jazz House 1992)
• Fourth World (B and W Music 1993)
• Encounters of the Fourth World (B and W Music 1995)
• Live in South Africa 1993 (Bootleg.net 1996)
• Last Journey (M.E.L.T. 2000)
• Return Journey (Electro M.E.L.T. 2000)