Nico Assumpção, artistic alias of Antônio Álvaro Assumpção Neto was born in São Paulo, on the 13th of August of 1954. His father worked in the industrial business, loved jazz, and had played the upright acoustic bass in his youth as an amateur musician.
Some months later Nico was invited to perform at the Newport festival with musician Dom Um Romão, which paved the way for him to play with saxophonist Charlie Rouse's group and pianist Don Salvador.
This in turn put him in close contact to work with renowned jazz musicians such as saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Kenny Baron and drummer Billy Cobham. Nico also studied arrangement and orchestration at the Berklee College of Music, after taking the placement exams necessary to accept the previous mail courses he had taken some years earlier.
Back in Brazil, in 1981 Nico recorded his first instrumental record independently. He had a hard time releasing this album, and depended on big record companies to help him press and distribute his work. His album was only available in a few places, such as the "Hi-Fi" record store, in São Paulo. The album, entitled "Nico Assumpção" contained 10 songs (9 of them Nico had written himself). 3,000 copies were pressed by Fermata(label).
Bass Solo
Nico conducted many workshops on bass playing. These workshops included harmony, improvisation, and groove techniques. He used a syllabus filled with exercises, examples and techniques as reference for his classes. This reference material would later be expanded and organized into a system, becoming a book on Nico's method of improvisation. At the end of the year 2000, Lumiar publishing would release it under the name: "Bass Solo, the secrets of improvisation".
Secrets
What was the secret behind Nico's extraordinary ability to play? Rossana, his wife, would answer: " He always was studying. I don't remember one day in which Nico was at home that he wasn't studying the bass in the studio, be it Saturday, Sunday or holidays. He played, he studied and he listened. His capacity for constant self-improvement is clear in the work he left behind. As a musician Nico was a perfect being. He was never happy with 99%.
He had to be 100%. Nico and the bass were like one being, as if they were part of each other. The finger that touches the string and the strings that penetrate the finger."
Nico was married twice. From his first marriage with Paula he had one daughter, Mariana, born in 1985. From his marriage with Rossana Lorentz, his second wife, Nico had no children. They lived together for 6 years, until Nico died in 2001.
In 1999 he began working with keyboardist José Namen from Minas Gerais and Nelson Faria. The idea of their project was to play The Beatles with Brazilian rhythms. The project would be called: Beatles- a Brazilian tribute. They performed sometimes with this project including a gig in the city of Ouro Preto. During this period, Nico had some health problems, and had to undergo surgery due to a herniated disk injury.
With a time gap of 16 years between his second and third record, in April and June of year 2000 Nico returned to the studio with Nelson Faria(guitar) and Lincoln Cheib(drums) to record the album "três/three", rerecording songs such as "cor de rosa"( one of the most important songs of Nico's career), "eu sei que vou te amar"(the Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes classic) and "Vera Cruz" ( Milton Nascimento and Márcio Borges). He also recorded his own new songs, in partnership with Nelson Faria, and songs by Lincoln Cheib and Mauro Rodrigues. The last live recordings by Nico Assumpção are from the album " playing Victor Assis Brasil". These recordings took place at the jazz bar Mistura Fina on the 30th and 31st of March and on the 1st of April of 2000 alongside pianist Luiz Avellar and drummer Kiko Freitas, featuring special guests Nivaldo Ornelas (saxophone) and Ricardo Silveira( guitar).
After a European tour promoting the album of Maria João and Mário Laginha he was feeling sick. During the tour he had mentioned he needed to go to a doctor when he got back to Brazil because he just didn't feel well. After he went to the doctor Nico found out he had lung cancer, and it was already in an advanced stage.
The disease spread quickly to his liver and then to his spinal chord. The treatment was painful and difficult, and the release of the "três/three" album occurred during this period. In December Nico autographed his CD's for his fans from the hospital . He spoke English and French fluently and mixed these languages together with no apparent reason during his conversations. It was evident the disease had evolved into a very advanced and fatal stage affecting his brain.
In the 20th of January of 2001 Nico died and in the next day his ashes were deposited in the Rodrigo de Freitas lake. At this place there is a tribute sign under a tree that reads: "The Haven of Nico Assumpção".