Coisas do mundo de Nara

Com um agradecimento especial à Paola Martini (a Garota do Ribeirão), aqui fica mais um album original da minha querida Nara (este de 1969) para ser descoberto por todos os meus amigos. As re-edições desses albuns originais (e são mais de vinte!) são tão raras que vale a pena aproveitar esta chance, até porque se trata de um dos melhores albuns dela.

One of my all-time favorite Brazilian singers. The cliche about Nara Leão (1942-1989) was that she was "the muse of bossa nova." As a teenager in the late 'Fifties, she opened up her parents house as a salon for the movers and shakers of the early bossa nova scene - Jobim, João Gilberto, Roberto Menescal, Vinicius DeMoraes, Carlos Lyra and others - to hang out in. Rising to stardom in the early '60s, she became one of Brazil's sweetest, most delectable singers, recording political songs which were critical of the military dictatorship, as well as many beautiful pop and bossa standards. Though hard to find, Nara's records are well worth checking out.

This is one of her's more difficult albums, largely due to the overly-stylized arrangements, which feature mutated marching band motifs and jazzy flourishes throughout. The brass is too intrusive, the tinkling percussion and minor-key organ riffs too clever and too artsy. Her vocals are sweet, but this attempt to stretch the boundaries of her art is simply too strained to command your attention. You can see why, with all the changes going on at the time, she tried something like this, but it's a bit of a noble failure. One interesting note: she covers Malvina Reynolds's anti-suburbia anthem, "Little Boxes," in portuguese. I imagine the lyrics, about little boxes on a hillside, had a much different impact in Rio, where, unlike practically anywhere else in the world, the slums of the morro are up on the surrounding mountains, rather than down in the flatlands, or the surrounding suburban rings. At any rate, this album is probably of interest to folks looking for weirdness and artistic experimentation in Brazilian pop, but might still get on your nerves... (in The Wonders of Brazilian Music)