Native Dancer represented Shorter's growing fascination with Portuguese and Brazilian culture following his marriage to his Portuguese wife Ana Maria in 1966. Subsequently, originals like ‘Feio’, ‘Surucucu’ and ‘Manolete’ paid homage to Portuguese/Brazilian culture and in 1970 he even recorded Milton Nascimento's ‘Vera Cruz’ on the Blue Note album Moto Grosso Feio in 1970. However, nothing quite prepared listeners for Native Dancer. By 1974 Shorter had become a fan of Nascimento's music and he and vocalist Flora Purim shared the airfare to bring the guitarist/vocalist plus two of his musicians – keyboardist Wagner Tiso and drummer Roberto Silva – to the US. After rehearsals with Purim in New York City, all three Brazilians joined Purim for an appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival where one of her best albums, 500 Miles High, was recorded. When they returned to the US, they went to Shorter's house in Malibu where they prepared for Native Dancer, recorded on 12 September 1974 with the addition of bassist Dave McDaniel (then with Joe Cocker), Jay Gordon (a pop songwriter, guitarist and producer), Dave Amaro (Flora Purim's guitarist) and percussionist Airto Moreira (Flora Purim's husband). The album was produced by Jim Price, a multi-instrumentalist who had worked with The Rolling Stones. Shorter wanted to give full reign to Nascimento's talent and it's his voice that opens the album with ‘Ponta de Areia’, a folkloric-like melody in 9/8. On ‘Lilia’ he uses wordless vocals while on ‘Tarde’, Nascimento's falsetto voice sounds like a continuation of Shorter's soprano sax solo. Shorter's three original compositions are treated instrumentally – ‘Diana’, written for the newborn baby of Flora and Airto, ‘Ana Maria’, a dedication to his wife, while ‘Beauty and the Beast’ prompts a funky response from Herbie Hancock's piano. On release, the record brought attention and acclaim to Nascimento helping define an approach to Brazilian music away from the bossa nova stylings of Tom Jobim or Joao Gilberto or the tropicalia style of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. And while Nascimento's style was certainly influenced by jazz – which accounts for the close musical rapport Shorter struck up with him on this session, later appearing on several of Nascimento's recordings – the real significance of Native Dancer was in the creative way Shorter framed Brazilian music through the creative prism of his imagination that, in turn, subtly influenced vernacular Brazilian music itself.