Leny Andrade
Cantor da noite
Leny de Andrade Lima (1943-2013) can hold her own with any jazz great. She was recently praised in the New York Times as an exceptional singer who is not well enough known here. And her music makes you happy. So here is something for your soul right at the beginning of the year. Leny was born in Rio (where else?) and often had hits in the Brazilian charts. She sang in clubs, also abroad, with stops in Mexico, the United States and Europe. Toniy Bennett called her “the Ella Fitzgerald of Brazil”.
Albatroz
São Paulo Underground
Olhaluai, from their 5th album Cantos Invisívels
The multi-national, multi-ethnic, multi.musical São Paulo Underground are a great example of the new vanguard in music. Rob Mazurek leads in contemporary jazz and forward-looking rock, and Guilherme Granado, Mauricio Takara and Thomas Rohrer in updating and modernizing Brazilian musical forms. In a fascinating mixture of Sun Ra-esque cosmic noise and rhythms and phrasing we also find elements from samba, maracatu, rock and free jazz traditions.
Cuneiform Records
Elis Regina
At the Montreux Jazz Festival
There are few more accomplished vocalists than Brazil’s Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (1945-1982), whose warm and sonorous voice conveyed a wide range of musical content. Here we see her with the famous keyboardist Hermeto Pascoal. She made her appearance at the 13th Jazz Festival in 1979 legendary in the twinkling of an eye by virtuously singing three songs by Carlos Jobim in three different keys. Elis Regina was born in Porto Alegre and started performing as a child. Her death at the age of 36 from a combination of alcohol and cocaine shocked the nation.
Studio Luna Azul
Liniker e os Caramelos
Tiny Desk Concert
Here we segue into the present with Liniker (de Barros Ferreira Campos), born in 1995 and also from São Paul, two generations later, but with the same kind of voice, capable of anything. Liniker identifies as they/them and gives a sublime soft jazz performance here with their Brasilian as well as international friends. Liniker’s way of being smooth, laid-back and sincere is both professional, in the sense of well-practiced, and heart-felt.
NPR
Billie Eilish
Tiny Desk Concert
Billie Eilish, no doubt one of the great singer-songwriters of her generation, shows us an intimate side of herself. Her voice is beautifully clear and pure; and she always works in collaboration with her brother Finneas O’Connor who mostly doesn’t use, or need, his last last. For those of you who don’t know that she’s a mega star, Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell, born 2001 in Los Angeles, broke out at age fourteen with the original song “Ocean Eyes”. A steep international career followed.
NPR
