Dig Deep: Elis Regina – Elis, Como E Porque – Phillips (1969)

Elis Regina – Andança
Elis Regina – O Sonho
Elis Regina – Memórias de Marta Saré

In an attempt to continue to atone for highlighting less than stellar music during last week’s Pound For Pound post, I thought I would feature an album from an artist whose singing chops are not only virtually beyond critique but also someone who many regard as one of the greatest voices of all time, Elis Regina.

I first heard Elis’ music while at KALX in Berkeley. Listening to Kitty and Matthew Africa’s shows which featured a fair amount of Brazilians, combined with my own interests in Brazilian music (by the time I got to KALX I was already a major fan of Baden Powell and Gal Costa, but still hadn’t heard a lot of Brazilian soul such as Tim Maia and Toni Tornado) pushed me to dig deeper into the legendary KALX library. Eventually I found my way to Elis and while I dug her style and voice most of the music we had was pre-1968 and straight-ahead bossa nova. It wasn’t until I head “Andança” from an otherwise so-so compilation of MPB that I fell completely in love with the sound of Elis Regina.

It took a number of years since then for me to track down the LP that featured that song, 1969’s Elis, Como E Porque. What separates the sound on this album from Elis’ prior work is the expert arrangements done here by Roberto Menescal and Erlon Chaves. Though the album incorporates some expected rhythms from Bossa Nova, there are all these divergencies into a more jazzy or soulful sound that even after multiple listens continues to surprise my ears. You get a bit of that in “O Sonho” with it’s upbeat start that then slows into a bossa beat before returning to that upbeat soul-jazz sound and ending with a truly unexpected wash of feedback. “Memórias de Marta Saré” also begins fairly conventionally, with a somewhat samba based rhythm, then to some straight soulful jazzy playing with some strong back beat. I really could have picked any track from this record as representative of this fascinating blend of multiple styles, every single one is fantastic, but still, the one I’m most drawn to is “Andança.”

“Andança” has always been a difficult song for me to describe. Though it’s a mid-tempo song, it feels like the groove is in slow motion at the start, which I think has to do with the accents that come from the drummer in those earlier parts. That subtly slinky funky groove is augmented from time to time with a full orchestra of strings and horns, but they never overpower the overall sound. And then there are Elis’ vocals. In a word they are otherworldly. There’s no reason why she should bend the notes the way she does in the chorus when she sings “Amor,” but it’s one of the most amazing vocal performances I’ve ever heard. Just in singing that one word and the differences in singing that single word at multiple times in the song, Elis leaves me speechless everytime I hear it…as if my mind can’t fully comprehend that level of beauty. After receiving this on LP, I noticed there are also some subtle changes between the mono version and the stereo version that I had heard before, from the additional notes at the start to the absence of horns when the chorus comes back around the second time. It’s really hard for me to think of another brazilian song that I love more than this track. From the sound of it to the incredible singing from Elis, it truly is a marvelous piece of art. One that I am all to happy to finally be able to share here.

Cheers,

Michael

…and just to give you a sense of Elis’ sheer joy in performance, here’s some video (in color no less, fairly rare for Brazilian musicians from this era) from 1969 with the same basic backing band featured on this record, though this song is featured on Elis Especial from 1968.

Elis Regina – Upa Neguinho