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)
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.

Ednardo "O Azul E O Encarnado" (RCA Victor, 1977)
This album features guest appearances by Raimundo Fagner and Roberto de Recife, and though it drifts into questionable areas, it's nowhere near as excessive as much of the mainstream MPB of the time... Mellow, worth checking out.

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 "Ingazeira" (Continental, 2001)

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

Ednardo "Maxximum" (Sony-BMG, 2005)

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.

Edson & Tita "Partiu Do Alto" (Whatmusic, 2005)

Edson & Tita "Novidade De Vida" (Whatmusic, 2005)

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)
(Produced by Eliane Elias, Steve Rodby & Marc Johnson)
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!

Eliane Elias "Bossa Nova Stories" (Blue Note, 2008)
Lushly arranged versions of various bossa nova classics and a few North American standards, sung in both English and Portuguese... As with much of her work, this is swank and occasionally a bit overripe, yet appealing throughout. For the "smooth jazz" set, this record will be a real treat.

Elizabeth "Serie Bis: Jovem Guarda" (EMI, 2000)

Cassia Eller - see artist discography

Elizabeth "Serie Bis: Jovem Guarda" (EMI, 1960)

Elomar - see artist discography

Fats Elpidio "Piano Bossa Nova" (RCA Victor, 1960)
Punctuating a decades-long career, this bossa-themed LP has veteran samba-cancao/gafieira pianist Fats Elpidio in a mellow mood, covering newly-minted classics by Tom Jobim ("Meditacao," "Samba De Uma Nota So") and Oscar Castro-Neves, alongside material by Elpidio's longtime cohort, Zaccarias, and an eclectic mix of composers. The arrangements are mostly pretty pedestrian, standard-issue light-orchestral dance fare; Elpidio's piano plunking is elegant, but not as inspired as some of his earlier work... It's all very comfortable and conservative. Worth checking out if you're in an EZ frame of mind, but not really all that essential.

Fats Elpidio "Samba Da Madrugada" (Masterplay, 1962)

Fats Elpidio "Fats Samba" (Copacabana, 1964)
(Produced by Moacyr Silva)

Embalo Trio "Embalo Trio" (RCA Victor, 1965)

Engenheiros Do Hawaii - see artist discography

E O Tchan - see artist discography

Epoca De Ouro/Various Artists "Cafe Brasil" (Teldec, 2001)

Epoca De Ouro/Various Artists "Cafe Brasil. v.2" (Warner, 2003)

Ernani Filho "Dois Amigos: As Musicas De Ary Barroso Na Voz De Ernani Filho" (EMI-Odeon, 1963)
Syrupy, florid, romantic vocals, very much a throwback to the bolero-influenced "radio singers" era, with lush orchestrations and moderate tempos. Some songs have a little more punch to them than others, but mostly this is a pretty low-key, easy-listening-y record. This is a tribute to samba-cancao composer Ary Barroso, who is pictured on the cover, but may or may not be the pianist whose notes occasionally drift to the fore.

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.

Arnaldo Estrella "Antologia Da Musica Erudita Brasileira, v.5" (Tratore, 2005)

Arnaldo Estrella & Mariucchia Iacovino "Leopoldo Miguez: Sonatas Opus 14 Em La Maior" (Atracao, 2003)

Arnaldo Estrella "...Plays Villa-Lobos" (Masterclass, 1967)

Eva "Eva" (EMI-Odeon, 1974)
(Produced by Milton Miranda, Maesto Gaya & Renato Correa)
Apparently this is a later album by the singer known as Evinha, formerly of the vocal group, Trio Esperanca. This disc features disco-era pop vocals, with a light touch of soul. You could as easily make a case for her being a Brazilian Olivia Newton John as you could claim her as a South American soul sister (as many websites have). Mainly this is fairly kitschy (I refer you to Exhibit A: her English-language disco update of "Moon River...") And yet, there is something oddly appealing to this album, in much the same way you might find yourself humming a David Gates & Bread song once in a while... She did have a nice voice, and a few songs were written by Renato Correa, formerly of the Golden Boys band, along with one by rocker Luiz Vagner.

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!

Leny Eversong "A Grande Leny Eversong" (Revivendo, 2005)

Leny Eversong "Grandes Vozes" (EMI, 2008)

Evinha "Cartao Postal" (EMI-Odeon, 1971)
A pleasant, if relatively pedestrian, solo album from a member of the Trio Esperanca vocal group. This album, with ambitious pop-vocals by Orlando Silveira and Geraldo Vespar, largely lacks the simplicity and naifishness that made the Esperanca recordings so sweet... It's nice, if you're into brightly orchestrated "sunshine pop" and there are some kooky musical ideas and fine vocal phrasing... But it didn't quite grab me; a little too close to Olivia Newton-John/Roberta Flack territory for me, a little too stuck in the "square" sensibilities of the major-label pop world, despite a repertoire that includes songs from some fairly hip rock/MPB composers.

Evinha "Evinha" (EMI-Odeon, 1973)
In contrast, I like this album a lot -- the arrangements are a lot tighter, and denser, and more intense, with a hint of the brooding power of "serious" MPB artists such as Chico Buarque, et al. Many of the same composers are represented here -- Renato Correa, Erasmo Carlos -- as well as a few songs from newcomer Ze Rodrix and his crew... Overall, this just seems like a stronger, more tightly focussed album, the music is inventive and her voice is confident and appealing. It's a cool record -- worth tracking down!

Exaltasamba "Eterno Amanhecer" (RDS, 1992)

Exaltasamba "Encanto" (RDS, 1994)

Exaltasamba "Luz Do Desejo" (EMI, 1996)

Exaltasamba "Desliga E Vem" (EMI, 1997)

Exaltasamba "Cartao Postal" (EMI, 1998)

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.

Exaltasamba "Bons Momentos" (EMI, 2001)

Exaltasamba "Ao Vivo" (EMI, 2002)

Exaltasamba "Livre Para Voar" (2007)

Exaltasamba "Todos Os Sambas Ao Vivo" (EMI, 2006)

Exaltasamba "Pagode Do Exalta Ao Vivo" (2007)

Exaltasamba "Serie Identidade" (EMI, 2002)

Exaltasamba "Para Sempre" (EMI, 2002)

Exaltasamba "Eu Sou O Samba" (EMI, 2005)

Exaltasamba "Essencial" (Som Livre, 2008)

Brazilian Music - Letter "F"

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