In an effort of expanding your musical horizons,
I just wanted to take a minute to tell you about one of my favorite artist of all time...
Elis Regina.

I first heard of her in elementary school from a classmate.
She snuck me a 45 of this wonderful artist in her bookbag.
In which I had traded back to her a Friends of Distinction 45
and a stick of my baseball card bubble gum, but needless to say..
I got the best of the trade because I became a lifelong fan.

Elis Regina was a Brazilian Bossa Nova singer who was out in the 60s to the early 80s.
There are many adjectives that could describe her,but to me She was one of the rare artist
that made you feel what She was singing.Her expressions and stage presence was unique.
I don't really feel there was anyone like her.
At one time She was identified as one of the greatest performers in her country.
If I had to equate her with other singers,
I'd would say She would be a mix between Edith Piaf,Billie Holiday & Roberta Flack.

Like many singers in many eras...they only grace us for a short period of time.
Like Otis Redding,Sam Cooke,Janis Joplin.She had a troubled life and passed at the young age of 36.
She is singing in Brazilian Portuguese.I hoping that maybe one day to see a biopic
of her on the big screen somewhere so the world can know her story.




AGUAS DE MARCO( The waters of March)






ATRAS DE PORTA (Behind the door)






ME DEIXAS LOUCAS (You drive me crazy)



Her children were very young when She passed,
but they all grew up to be performers in their own right.
Here is her daughter the talented Maria Rita.




Singing the Samba song..Cara Valente (Brave face)
By the way...I love the way She comes out.....Like what?
The song is about running into an ex-boyfriend.


Peace.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2012 10:03AM by BM31.

Nice lil tribute piece Beatmaster, she is a great artist indeed.
I only have one Ellis Regina 45 in my collection but it's a doozy.
I'll have to bust that out again once I get the tarp off my 45s.

---

“Lesser artists borrow... great artists steal.” - Igor Stravinsky
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Yes do that,RC and dig for more of her records it's worth it.
You'll hear alot of American Jazz elements in her songs.
She did duos with just about all the powers that be in BossaNova during that time
(Jobim,Nascimento,Gil,etc..)

With her as with Billie and Janis or even Roberta,
They'll never wow you with Whitney Houston,Patti Labelle or Mariah Carey type pipes,feel me...
her appeal rather is the rawness of the emotion and the way She carries you through a song.
She suffered through a love triangle and then later addiction, and like Billie Holiday you can hear it in her songs.
The epitome for me is in Atras da Porta at 1:43 the beat shifts and you hear the bass go into a 3 note
downbeat just as She is pushing back her hair....that's it for me,She puts you there,
at the musical place where She was trying to take you.That is true expression.IMHO
That is what music is suppose to do for us.
I always felt my whole life you should feel the music moreso than hearing it.

And to bring it back to a cratedigger's standpoint.
I hope that this will allow to spend some more time in the Brazilian crates.
They have styles as vast and as different as we do.From hard hittin breakbeats
with African conotions to Jazz and BossaNova, to pop, techno,R & B,they even got rap records,
They get down with theirs!

As an example, Here is Djavan rockin a joint that could have easily been done by George Benson
or Al Jarreau and the duet between Vanessa Jackson and Thiaguinho could easily rival something
Peabo and Rachell Farrell could have dropped.I also threw in a little Vanessa De Mata.










Were expanding RC...were expanding! (sorrisos

Peace

31

I've actually been putting on the Brazillian pandora station to go to sleep to lately , but I just end up laying awake and giving songs the thumbs up. Definitely gonna have work more of it into my collection , and am open to anymore suggestions . I am really feeling the Elis Regina by the way .

Good thread, big Brazilian music fan here, got seriously caught up after studying Brazilian and Argentinian music in college under a great Professor.

Even though its been some years since I started listening I'm still only dipping my toes in..that said, when going to a record store Brazilian records are always near the top of the list. It's a great music to listen to given the really unique time signatures (coming from the standpoint of most US listeners), the rhythmic foundations are so pervasive through much of the Brazilian popular music, its sometimes crazy to really listen to a music driven so differently.

While I'm a bossa fan for sure, sometimes the genre dipped too far into the realm of polished production and arrangement styles for me...in any case its completely to be expected given the crazy popularity and intermingling of bossa and jazz in the early 60's. It's such a huge huge world of music, going digging in Brazil is a dream of mine (I'll check that one off in the next five years I hope!). Samba, bossa, Tropicalia, MPB, jazz etc.

Anybody completely new to Brazilian music (and culture as a whole for that matter) might be interested in Orfeu Negro [Black Orpheus] (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053146/). Fantastic film where Carnaval and the associated samba (previously Candomble) rhythms are fundamental. Huge movie at the time and a great introduction to the country's music.

I'll have to post up some pictures of my stash, thanks for the links BM31!