Essa Muhler Elis Regina LP
$
20
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Description
For those not familiar with Elis Regina, she represents the pinnacle of Brazilian popular music and is up there with the finest singers of the world. This 1979 album's title, Essa Mulher, translates as `this woman' and as such represents a fine showcase for her talents.
Elis' life was full of controversy and tragically cut short less than three years after this remarkable album was recorded. She once described herself as living the life of a kamikaze, but by that one mustn't assume from that that she didn't make some extremely shrewd decisions in her life. One of them is exemplified on this album by the credits to her husband, Cesar Mariano, as pianist, arranger, co producer, musical director and assistant engineer. This album, showcase as it is for Elis Regina's talents demonstrates how important her husband was to her. It is probably foolish to speculate on might have beens but I do wonder if her story might have been different had these two been able to stick together.
This album represents a wide variety of material presented with great honesty and technical perfection by this genius of interpretation of the songs of others. Her voice is here supported by the subtle arrangements and orchestrations of Cesar Mariano. Given that this album is now around thirty three years old, its production values are both beautiful and surprisingly modern. Although there isn't a weak song on this album, standouts for me are: Cai Dentro with its references to her earlier Vou Deitar E Rolar, O Bebado E A Equilibrista, Joao Bosco and Aldir Blanc's anthem to political freedom, the utterly and almost unbearably beautiful Bolero De Sata (devil's bolero) where she shares the vocal duties with co-writer, Couby Peixoto, and the heartbreaking As Parencias Enganam (looks can be deceiving).
Elis was such a supreme musician that it is almost impossible in one album to exemplify her. She really was capable of doing it all from the most purring seductress to the hardest of fishwives and everything between. Her bossa renditions are regarded as classics of the form, but there is far more to her than bossa. Indeed, contrary to what one US reviewer claims in their review of this album, by 1979 and by and large on this album, she had left bossa nova far behind. What almost everything she did demonstrates though is a her technical perfection and her emotional depth.
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