[1] Gismonti was born in the small city of Carmo, state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, into a musical family.

After studying the classical repertoire in Brazil for 15 years, he went to Paris, France, to delve into modern music.

This is documented musically in tunes such as "Yualapeti" and "Sapain" (Yualapeti shaman, Sapain) and in the recordings Dança das Cabeças ("Dance of the Heads", 1977), Sol do Meio-Dia ("Noon Sun", 1978), which he dedicated to the Xingu, and Duas Vozes ("Two Voices", 1984).

The most important ensembles are his Brazilian group Academia de Danças, including Mauro Senise (saxophone and flutes), Zeca Assumpção (bass) and Nenê (Realcino Lima Filho, drums and percussion), the duo with Naná Vasconcelos (percussion), and the trio with Charlie Haden (bass) and Jan Garbarek (saxophone).

[2] Dança das Cabecas, the first ECM record, was nominated "Album of the Year" by Stereo Review and received the 1977 Großer Deutscher Schallplattenpreis.