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CD Reviews
Elis Sees The Future
Greg C | NY | 07/28/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This is a fantastic album. It's especially notable for the fact that in 1966, 21-year-old Elis Regina sought to use her already-considerable popularity and influence to popularize a bunch of then-unknown (in Brazil) songwriting talent on the order of Gilberto Gil, Edu Lobo, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque--that's to say, almost the whole upper-crust of the great MPB generation. To look at the writing credits on this album, you'd think it was made in, say, 1973 instead of the mid-60s. And her voice already had that fiery edge and swing, although she was still quite young, and had yet to work out some of the subtleties of nuance and shading that would make her later work so captivating. Cut for cut though, this is still one of the most important albums of the 60s in Brazil, and yes, she IS better than Dusty Springfield...."
Samba at it's best!
Sophie | North Carolina, USA | 08/09/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I had no idea what I was missing by not knowing anything about Elis Regina. I heard a song of hers on the Be Cool movie and scouted down the soudtrack to see who was singing that wonderful song. I looked high and low in convential music stores and could not find even a compilation album aside from Be Cool that I didn't have to special order. Because of Amazons wonderful selection and fast delivery I was able to get to know one of the best brazilian singers I have ever heard. This album is so wonderful it has stayed in the CD player since I bought it. Roda and Te my Samba are my favorites. If you love samba you will not be disappointed! I'm set to buy more of her albums very soon."
Outstanding vocals and the first Milton Nascimento
Carlos from Rio | Rio de Janeiro, RJ Brazil | 05/18/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Three remarkable characteristics features Elis Regina as a singer: her master vocal, her smartness to choose the best musicians and arrangers, and her taste to choose songs and composers. This is her second studio album at Philips/Polygram Records. It was not so jazzy as the first one but the usual rule of covering new and very good composers was applied. She was the first major singer to record Milton Nascimento (Cancao do Sal in this album). Here you'll also find Lunik 9, inspired song-and-lyrics by Gilberto Gil. Also one of the best renditions of the traditional "Carinhoso". Very great!"
Elis O Recebeu De Braços Abertos
Edd S. Hurt | Boulder, CO USA | 06/20/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Elis Regina, who died in 1982, was, of course, the premier interpreter of Brazilian popular song in the 1960s and 1970s. She did definitive versions of the work of composers Gilberto Gil and Antonio Carlos Jobim, just to name two. I would rate her as one of the greatest popular singers of the past forty years, on a par with Dusty Springfield for sure, and much more exciting. "Elis" dates from 1966 and is a fine example of her early style. This CD is worth owning if only for her incredible version of Gilberto Gil's "Roda" ("Circle") which cuts Gil's more laid-back original. Also included here is a version of Gil's "Lunik 9" which compares well with his recording. As far as I can tell this is the only CD on which "Roda," an essential record by Elis, can be found. There is another Philips effort, "O Melhor de Elis," released in 1979, that contains some of her best early work, and which to my knowledge has not been available in the United States for years. It's a crime--although Elis Regina has a good boxed set available ("Elis," a Philips "Série Grandes Nomes" issue, 4 CDs), I don't see why all of this great artist's work shouldn't be available here, with suitable liner notes and translations. This era has seen the re-assessment of many a popular singer; Elis certainly deserves it."
Track Listings (12) - Disc #1