Luiz Eca - see artist discography

Ednardo "O Romance Do Pavao Mysteriozo" (RCA, 1974)
The cover art was all psychedelic, but the music is fairly reserved... It's basically folk-tinged rock, clearly within the troubadour tradition set by Chico Buarque, Geraldo Vandre and the like. This won't blow your mind, but it's a nice record, worth checking out for a glimpse at the music of the time.

Ednardo "Birro" (RCA Victor, 1976)
Ednardo "O Azul E O Encarnado" (RCA Victor, 1977)
Pleasant stuff from Fortaleza, in the Northeast, this gets goofy, but it's not bad... A folk-tinged rock balladeer, perhaps midway between early Novos Baianos and Joao Bosco, with just a hint of forro in the mix. These mid-'70s albums by Ednardo do Ceara didn't blow me away at first, but they kinda grew on me after a while. Although he's not a dazzling performer, Ednardo displayed only minimal cheesiness, at least this early in his career. The O Azul album, which features guest appearances by Raimundo Fagner and Roberto de Recife, drifts into questionable areas, but is nowhere near as excessive as much of the mainstream MPB of the time. Both these records were re-released together as a single CD in 2001, and it's a pretty good bargain. (For more info on Ednardo, check out Clique Musique.) (NOTE: both albums were re-released as a single CD.)

Ednardo "Cauim" (Warner Brothers, 1978)

Ednardo "Ednardo" (CBS-Epic, 1979)

Ednardo "Ima" (CBS-Epic, 1980)

Ednardo "Terra Da Luz" (EMI-Odeon, 1982)

Ednardo "Ednardo" (EMI-Odeon, 1983)

Ednardo "Libertree" (EMI-Odeon, 1985)

Ednardo "Rubi" (Aura, 1991)

Ednardo "Unica Pessoa" (GPA, 2000)

Ednardo/Amelinha/Belchior "Pessoal Do Ceara" (Continental, 2002)

Edson & Tita "Gosto Tanto" (Whatmusic, 2003)
This duo consists of singer/guitarist Tita and her longtime musical partner, composer/keyboardist Edson Lobo (not to be confused with the great Edu Lobo...), who co-founded the Trio Camara in the early 1960s. This is a mellow, latter-day bossa set, with assistance from Brazilian elder Joao Donato, who plays piano on most tracks. I honestly can't say I'm all that thrilled by Tita's vocals, or by the reserved, conservative arrangements that back her up -- this is all a little too low-key and sedate for me, although I can see how folks could get into it. Not sure about the provenance of these recordings -- unlike other albums on the Whatmusic label, this actually might not be a reissue, in which case the modern feel of the sessions would make a lot of sense. This album doesn't suck, but it also didn't move me.

Eliane Elias "Eliane Elias Sings Jobim" (Blue Note/Somethin' Else, 1998)
(Produced by Elaine Elias & Oscar Castro-Neves)
An elegant, soulful homage to Antonio Carlos Jobim, with compact backing by Paulo Braga, Oscar Castro-Neves, Michael Brecker... With the heavyweight mainstream jazz line-up I wanted to get all up on my high horse and dismissive about it, but this album is pretty nice. The band keeps things understated and low-key, and Elias shoes away from the lush excesses that Jobim himself was noted for... At sixteen tracks, the set list is pretty generous, and includes a number of fairly less-well known compositions. Mostly sung in Portuguese, with her voice and piano work generating a breezy, mellow cool. If only all "smooth jazz" was this nice!

Eliane Elias "Dreamer" (BMG/Bluebird Jazz, 2004)
A beautiful, if somewhat conventional, jazz-standards session, with pianist-vocalist Elias fronting a full orchestra for the first time in her decades-long career. Along with her are accompanists Paulo Braga on percussion and guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, who keep her solidly anchored to her bossa nova roots. The album opens with a marvellously restrained, torchy version of Tony Hatch's "Call Me," and moves into more standard Brazilian fare by composers Antonio Carlos Jobim, Marcos Valle and Dorival Caymmi, balanced by North American material by Johnny Mercer, Burt Bacharach, and others. Elias herself offers a couple of fine originals, including the gospel-tinged "Movin' Me On" and the more introspective "Time Alone." The music is quite glossy and commercial, not the kind of thing I normally go for, except that Elias's voice is just so pristine, calm and understated; she packs a lot of feeling into her performances, yet does it without any hint of showiness or strain. The tone -- both musical and emotional -- is always perfect. This is a very mellow, but very substantive, album, one that surprised my by its growing hold on my imagination. Recommended!

Cassia Eller - see artist discography

Elomar/Geraldo Azevedo/Vital Farias/Xangai "Cantoria 1" (Kuarup, 1984)
Elomar/Geraldo Azevedo/Elomar/Vital Farias/Xangai "Cantoria 2" (Kuarup, 1988)
Beautiful, relaxed live acoustic recordings by this informal foursome from the Brazilian Northeast... The more upbeat numbers echo Gilberto Gil's acoustic improvisations, while the quieter numbers seem to draw on the Latin American "new song" movement... At any rate, these are gentle, stately performances, and well worth checking out.

Elomar "Cantoria 3 -- Canto E Solo" (Kuarup, 1984)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Longe Demais Das Capitais" (RCA-BMG, 1986)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "A Revolta Dos Dandis" (BMG-Ariola, 1987)
Apparently, this was the band's commercial breakout album, bringing them national fame and standing as one of the primary bands in Porto Allegre's modern rock scene. I can see why: they emulate a lot of elements of then-contemporary American and British pop, including the plodding, heartfelt, semi-acoustic ballad. But overall, it feels clumsy and forced -- obviously there's a lot of wordplay and passion invested in the lyrics, but the musical end doesn't really hold up. When they do pick up the tempo in the second half, they sound a bit like Oingo Boingo... And I mean that to be a charitable comparison. Didn't do much for me. Note: The band had a new lineup on this disc: guitarist Augusto Licks came on board for this album, replacing bassist Marcelo Pitz (with singer Humberto Gessinger pulling a Paul McCartney by taking over on bass...)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Ouca O Que Eu Digo: Nao Ouca Ninguem" (BMG-Ariola, 1988)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Alivio Imediato" (BMG-Ariola, 1989)
A live show, recorded in Rio...

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "O Papa E Pop" (BMG-Ariola, 1990)
Bland, plodding mainstream rock, with New Wave-ish tendencies... Even with the then-typical Brazilian pop-culture time-lag, it's kind of surprising such a pedestrian rock record came out this late in the game... Sounds very 1983.

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Varias Variaveis" (BMG-Ariola, 1991)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Gessinger, Licks & Maltz" (BMG-Ariola, 1992)
That would be lyricist bassist-singer Humberto Gessinger, guitarist Augusto Licks and drummer Carlos Maltz, the core of the band at the time of this lineup...

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Filmes De Guerra, Cancoes De Amor" (BMG-Ariola, 1993)
A live, "unplugged" album...

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Simples Do Coracao" (BMG-Ariola, 1996)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Minuano" (BMG-Ariola, 1997)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii "Infinita Highway" (BMG-Ariola, 1998)
An 8-CD, metal-clad box set, including the albums Longe Demais Das Capitais (1986), A Revolta Dos Dandis (1987), Ouca O Que Eu Digo: Nao Ouca Ninguem (1988), Alivio Imediato (1989), O Papa E Pop (1990), Varias Variaveis (1991), Gessinger, Licks & Maltz (1992), Filmes De Guerra, Cancoes De Amor (1993), Simples Do Coracao (1996) and Minuano (1997). Also includes a small, hardbound booklet with some info on the band and their albums.

E O Tchan "No Havai" (Mercury-Polygram, 1998)
(Produced by Wesley Rangel & Cau Adan)
Brainless Caribbean-tinged samba-pop from this wildly (and inexplicably) popular band... The slight nod towards Havai (Hawaii) only lasts a second, with a hint of steel guitar and ukulele in the first track... After that, it's business as usual for these guys -- one same-sounding party tune after another. Midway through, you might find yourself getting a slight headache... like I did, when I tried to listen to this album.

Arnaldo Estrella "Personalidades" (Philips, 1976)
For a glimpse into the appeal of the much revered Brazilian classical composer, Heitor Villa-Lobos, several solo piano pieces on this delightful retrospective might come in handy. Estrellas was a modern classical pianist from the 1940s and '50s, who trained with Stojowski... this collection highlights him performing short pieces of various Brazilian composers, including one by Radames Gnattali. Estrella has an engaging, bouncy style. The only irksome moments come with some symphonic performances on the second disc that simply ring of irritating modernism of the ilk that has lost its bite as the decades have passed. Otherwise, this is pretty groovy. Recommended.

Leny Eversong "A Voz Pondersosa De Leny Eversong" (Som Livre, 2002)
Brassy, big-bandish vocals from the tail-end of the pre-bossa '"radio singer" era... This retrospective gathers twenty tracks from her albums on the Copacabana and RGE labels from 1956-60, kicking off with an almost slavishly Ella Fitzgerald-ish, English-language version of "Mack The Knife," which gives you a sense of Eversong's general stylistic range. She gets more thunderous (and sings in Portuguese) for most of the other songs, and delves into some pumped-up cha-cha-cha pop and even some rock-tinged material... It's interesting to hear music that's so forceful and different than most Brazilian pop, but in all honesty, when she starts to really belt it out, it's actually pretty hard to take. This collection does justice to Eversong's career -- and she was a big star at the time -- but the style is probably not for most listeners.

Leny Eversong "Barclay Sessions" (Sunnyside, 2006)
World travel is a funny thing: "radio singer" Leny Eversong was best known in her native Brazil for singing North American romantic standards in English, but in the late 1950s when she decamped to France, she recorded several sessions of Brazilian tunes, all sung in Portuguese. Coming just before the bossa nova craze, her style is very different from the "Brazilian music" most folks know; it was even quite atypical for the Brazilian music of the time -- Eversong wasn't particularly into singing the samba, and even when she did cover material by composers such as Ary Barroso and Herivelto Martins, she recast it in a romantic light. Indeed, a lot of this sounds like the slow, slushy boleros that dominated Latin American pop at the time, filtered through American-style cabaret singing... This disc collects material from a 10" LP from 1958, Chantes Par Leny Eversong, and an accompanying EP originally issued on the French Barclay label. The band backing her up were uncredited, but expert is that it included Fafa De Lemos on violin and Chiquinho do Acordeon on accordion... My guess is, the audience for this is pretty limited: I have a hard time getting into it, even though I know a little bit about the historical context it was made in. But, you could see for yourself... it's certainly a different sound!

Exaltasamba "Mais Uma Vez" (EMI, 2000)
Yeesh. I was deceived by the album's first track, which is a fairly decent soft-samba ballad, but I soon realized that most of the songs on here are really terrible -- super-sappy, overproduced soft pop, with syrupy strings and Kenny G-ish brass and woodwinds. Tacky, blithe pop which mimicks the great melodic pagode of yesteryear. Skippable.

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