Tag: Maysa

Maysa: Barquinho – Bossa com Maysa
with Tamba Trio
released 1961, CBS 37161
This reissue on Columbia 88697320312

1 Barquinho – Maysa – (Ronaldo Boscoli & Roberto Menescal) (2:18)
2 Você e Eu – Maysa – (Carlos Lyra & Vinicius de Moraes) (2:15)
3 Dois Meninos – Maysa – (Roberto Menescal & Ronaldo Boscoli) (2:45)
4 Recado à Solidão – Maysa – (Francisco Feitosa) (2:33)
5 Depois do Amor – Maysa – (Normando & Ronaldo Boscoli) (2:25)
6 Só Você (Mais Nada) – Maysa – (Paulo Soledade) (1:53)
7 Maysa – Maysa – (Luiz Eça & Ronaldo Boscoli) (2:25)
8 Errinho à Toa – Maysa – (Roberto Menescal & Ronaldo Boscoli) (1:42)
9 Lágrima Primeira – Maysa – (Ronaldo Boscoli & Roberto Menescal) (2:46)
10 Eu e o Meu Coração – Maysa – (Inaldo Vilarim & Antonio Botelho) (2:14)
11 Cala Meu Amor – Maysa – (Tom Jobim & Vinicius de Moraes) (2:06)
12 Melancolia – Maysa – (Luiz Eça & Ronaldo Boscoli) (3:17)

Maysa led quite a storied life. Storied enough that there was even a mini-series not too long ago telling all those stories. If I had seen it, I could probably tell you everything about her (joke). As it stands I don’t know a whole lot. She was born in a wealthy family, and married into an even wealthier one: she got hitched with a millionaire 20 years older (smart girl). She began recording and releasing records in 1956 when discovered by a music producer, and quickly found stardom. Both her own ‘traditional’ family and her husbands’ found such a turn of events distasteful — a pop singer was a not reasonable pursuit for a “respectable” woman — and she soon divorced. She also became hooked on pain killers and ended up in the hospital by 1959, returning with a triumphant record titled “Voltei” (I’ve returned) in 1960. This album, from 1961, is considered a milestone in the blossoming bossa nova phenomenon. So much so that its famous cover (with Guanabara Bay featured beautifully as its backdrop) is featured in the opening pages of Ruy Castro’s wonderful book about bossa nova titled “Chega de Saudade.” This album gets overlooked in the bossa canon (at least, it was by me) and deserves to be in your collection!!

“The so-called ‘café society’ where she circulated was only circumstantial to Maysa, an artist whose work asked no pardon for situating itself between the magnetism of Elis Regina and the introversion of Elizeth Cardoso. On this record, she plays with both.”
–Tarik de Souza, review excerpted further below
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Review (first part only) by Tarík de Souza on cliquemusic.com, Translated by Flabbergast. You can find the whole review HERE
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One more testament that bossa nova did not appear out of nowhere nor was it created in one day (and not even in one year). This album of singer Maysa Monjardim (1936-77) was recorded in 1960, two years after the official launching of the movement with the 78-rpm disc `Chega de Saudade` from Joâo Gilberto. Even so, it mixes elements of an earlier scene — an atmosphere of samba canção de fossa, of which Maysa was one of the leading lights with her path-breaking ‘Ouça’ and ‘Meu Mundo Caiu’ — and anticipates future modifications like the appearance of the revolutionary Tamba Trio, whose rising star was still embryonic. Its members, the pianist Luís Eça (author of the arrangements on this CD), Bebeto (bass and flute), and Hélcio Milito (drums) form the instrumental base of the recording alongisde multi-instrumentalist, arranger, and bandleader Roberto Menescal and pianist Luis Carlos Vinhas. On the back cover (correctly reproduced by the meticulous Charles Gavin)* Ronaldo Bôscoli, one of the proponents of the new movement called them all the “boys of the New Wave”, yet more proof that the label bossa nova still had not quite stuck. The small ensemble in dialog with a large string orchestra (check out the loose, improvised feel to the opening of ‘Dois Meninos,’ that cites old folk songs,) framing the smoldering, heavy, and melancolic voice of Maysa, an interpreter with excellent technical precision and a style of profound emocional density, unjustly hidden away from new generations.
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*This review must be referencing a different pressing, because mine essentially has NO backcover — a very generic baby-blue with the titles and author credits. There is a little insert included in the digipack that has…. exactly the same thing. Not sure what the point of this is. Hell, it does not even mention that Tamba Trio is her backing band on this… Lame, no?
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**This is a black man steering their boat. He does not play on the record. But he did fetch them coffee and snacks while they were recording it.