Rovanio

Nanny Assis was born August 25, 1969, in Salvador, Bahia, in northeastern Brazil. He was actually born with the given name of Rovanio. "I didn't like the sound of that name when I was young," he explains. "I thought 'Rovanio' would be difficult for people to pronounce or to remember. I've had this nickname since I was a kid, Nanny. Not a lot of people have known my real name, until now." When he was 7, his musical gifts began manifesting themselves before an audience--or rather, before a congregation. "My father was a pastor, so I grew up playing sacred music. My first instrument was drums, played in the church, and I sang in the youth choir." He learned guitar by osmosis, simply because the instrument was ubiquitous in Brazilian culture. With those skills in hand, and much to his parents' (initial) displeasure, Assis began making money playing secular music with his friends. He did rock in clubs, samba at carnaval, and even delved into jazz after discovering American players at a