Nara Leão – Dez Anos Depois (1971)

Nara Leão
Dez Anos Depois
Released 1971
This edition, Japanese SHM mastering

Recorded in Paris and Rio de Janeiro

LP 1

1. Insensatez (Tom Jobim e Vinícius de Moraes)
2. Samba de uma nota só (Tom jobim e Newton Mendonça)
3. Retrato em branco e preto (Tom Jobim e Chico Buarque)
4. Corcovado (Tom Jobim)
5. Garota de Ipanema (Tom Jobim e Vinícius de Moraes)
6. Pois é (Tom Jobim e Chico Buarque)
7. Chega de Saudade (Tom Jobim e Vinícius de Moraes)
8. Bonita (Tom Jobim e Ray Gilbert)
9. Você e eu (Carlos Lyra e Vinícius de Moares)
10. Fotografia (Tom Jobim)
11. O grande amor (Tom Jobim e Vinícius de Moraes)
12. Estrada do sol (Tom Jobim e Dolores Duran)

LP 2

1. Por toda minha vida (Tom Jobim e Vinícius de Moraes)
2. Desafinado (Tom jobim e Newton Mendonça)
3. Minha namorada (Carlos Lyra e Vinícius de Moraes)
4. Rapaz de bem (Jony Alf)
5. Vou por aí (Baden Powell e Aloysio de Oliveira)
6. O amor em paz (Tom Jobim e Vinícius de Moraes)
7. Sábia (Tom Jobim e Chico Buarque)
8. Meditação (Tom Jobim e Newton Mendonça)
9. Primavera (Carlos Lyra e Vinícius de Moraes)
10. Este seu olhar (Tom Jobim)
11. Outra vez (Tom Jobim)
12. Demais (Tom Jobim e Aloysio de Olieveira)

I was listening to the radio the other day and caught the second half of an interview with the daughter of Nara Leão who was there to talk about Nara’s new revamped website and other subjects. She briefly mentioned this album, and how her mother had used it as a way to revisit her formative musical years as “the muse of bossa nova”, in the time before she became estranged from that crowd, a process which included switching record labels, hanging out more and more at the Zicartola club, and favoring protest music while accusing bossa nova of idle romanticism and middle-class alienation. By 1970 she was living in France and shortly about to retire from the music business almost entirely: she opted to spend most of the seventies raising her children, and earning her PhD in psychology (!!). So this album is kind of a sweet swan song, a double album overflowing with the canonical bossa nova repertoire presented in tastefully spare arrangements. The first of the two LPs is entirely acoustic, while the second LP brings in the arrangers Roberto Menescal (her first guitar instructor along with Carlos Lyra, incidentally), Luis Eça, and Rogério Duprat, who add orchestration and occasionally rhythm parts.

Nara wouldn’t record again for another five years, and that album (Meu Primeiro Amor, 1975) would steer clear of bossa nova and revel in songs and songwriters from earlier eras. She didn’t tour or play live during this period, but decided to jump back into the show business racket with both feet in 1977 after she learned that she was suffering from a malignant brain cancer.

The first time I heard this album I felt there was something distant, disembodied, or disconnected about some of it, as if Nara was looking back on the decade that had just passed from a long distance provided by the reflective insights of maturity. Well it wasn’t until looking at the credits that I understood that there was in fact an issue of distance at work, at least through the second half of it: not just because Nara was recorded in France, but because everything ELSE was recorded in Rio. That is to say, Nara’s guitar and vocal were tracked separately from the accompaniment and orchestrations, which were done at a studio in Rio. The exception to this is the second acoustic guitar provided by “special guest” Tuca – who I believe was also living in Paris at the time and recording with people like Françoise Hardy. So my imagining of the process is like this – Nara and Tuca go into Polydor, France, to be recorded by the mysterious “Mr.Bonzon” listed on the album jacket, then the tapes are flown to Rio where the songs used on the second LP are sweetened with arrangements by Menescal, Eça, and Rogério Duprat. Rogério gives us two memorable tracks in his best baroque embellishment (and both featuring harpsichord), “Minha namorada” and “Primavera.” While there is nothing to complain about with these arrangements from such talented company, I confess a predilection for the unadorned simplicity of the first half of the set. Just two acoustic guitars, the occasional stray piano line, and Nara’s alluring voice. Oh, and a blast of annoying bongos thrown in there on one track that shall remain a surprise for you.

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25 Comments

  1. Good post and write up thank you for sharing

  2. Thanks man, and thanks for the link to the cool blog. I actually meant to mention the Nara website — it was definitely at the center of their conversation and I went and surfed it while I was listening.

    Been pretty depressed lately, to be honest. Your feedback cheered me up 😉

  3. Hey Flabber, what's happening. I wish I had the time to comment on every single album(s) you post cause you post some really wickedly good shit. I especially liked the audiophile tech talk (in Portuguese mind you!!) when you posted that beautiful little Roy Ayers diddy that I have never even head of!

    After researching every piece of hardware and software you use to record, now I know why the music you record sounds so good and sweet. And I only use em pee 3! And the comment about 'using a 20 year old needle' sure hit home. Putting a new needle in the cartridge and putting a marble or granite square base under the/my turntable is a great and inexpensive way to increase the fidelity of your turntable too. So if you don't hear from us the bloggers sometimes, it does not mean that we are not listening or reading your blog.
    Here's a cool link from Regina Scharf of Deep Brazil on Nara Leão by her daughter Isabel Diegues. It's probably some of the same you were checking out.This http://www.naraleao.com.br/index.php website of Isabel Diegues, the daughter of Nara Leão is like ear candy, for your ear hole. FV you share sooo much with us, this is something I/we want to share with you and everyone who has love for this site.

  4. For some reason, the link was not hot and I deleted the prior comment to try and attach a hot link. Peace brother.

  5. wao!!! you've just made my day! muito axê sempre! luis rafael

  6. Thanks for everything you do. I've been going back trying to download some of your old posts i missed and I'm realizing how much you lost when megaupload was wiped out. It's a damn shame. Just want to let you know that yours is one of my favorite blogs before they get to you too. Thanks.

    • One of the, if not the best blogs out there. Not just for the music, the attention to detail, the erudite and informative commentary, bit fot the spirit. While we muat always be grateful for the efforts of bloggers, sometimes I get the impression that there is an element of snobbery, elitism and overblown ego motivating one or two of them. Not so here – the overwhelming feeling is of a genuine love for the music, a wish to keep it alive and a genuine desire to share, rather than a desire to say "look at me – I know more and have better records than anyone else".

      On that note I especially enjoyed the comments about GIlles Peterson on an earlier post. I worked in a famous Jazz record shop in Centrla London in the days when these places were bus places full of DJs and came across Peterson and some of the others in the "too cool for school" London Jazz crowd. Some (but not all) of them – including Mr P himself, struck me as being the epitome of that "look at me" BS.

      Anyway – stay strong. Blogging will never die, even if people have to go over to Newsgroup links. However I doubt it will come to that – there are tons of hosts out there – if you take a look at the jdownloader application, it will show many of them.

      For the time being the old Rapidshare is probably a good bet, since they've been taken to court a couple of times and won. In any case, things might not turn out as clear-cut in the long term. It seems that Megaupload's big mistake might have been to announce that it was going to go into partnership legally with a few artists and cut out the record companies. In other words, far from being concerned with the morality of filesharing, they were actually trying to stop a new business model that would have cut them out.

      Surprise, surprise.

      Anyway – I appreciate it's a big ask, but if you ever manage to reup some of the more recent stuff, that would be great. (If you do, put a textfile with a different random word in the archives to confuse bots looking to match checksums with previously uploaded archives).

      Thanks for all you've done to spread the word of this wonderful music. The artists and record companies should be grateful to you.

      Anonymous One.

  7. thanks "Anonymous One". You know, I was tempted by that theory about MU too but it veers a little close to conspiracy for me. Their CEO "Kim Dotcom" has a history of fraud and I'm not convinced anyone was taking his future `business-plan` very seriously, not to mention that quite a few services already exist that go direct from artists to fan-consumers. If anything maybe they piqued Babylon's ire by having Alicia Keys and her friends film a video and put it on YouTube, having it yanked from YouTube by industry stooges, getting YouTube to reinstate it and so on. But mostly I think they were just an easy target because of "Dotcom" being such a sketchy piece of work and having embezzlement charges and so on. There is an interesting/amusing discussion about it all at hxxps://plus.google.com/u/0/111314089359991626869/posts/HQJxDRiwAWq

    I haven't used jdownloader but have been meaning to check it out. Now you've given me further motivation. Thanks again for the kind comments

  8. whats pass?

  9. Dear Lord Flabber (I think you deserve an English Peerage for services promoting Brazilian Music that isn't well known to the Englisn public).

    You might be interested in this.

    http://www.prefixmag.com/news/rapidshare-isnt-going-anywhere/60846/

    "Dear RapidShare fans,You posted some comments on our wall today regarding the shutdown of Megaupload. There is no reason to be concerned. We distinguish ourselves from services like Megaupload in many major issues and we aren’t threatened in any way. One of the main differences between RapidShare and Megaupload is that we never wanted to escape from the legal access of any administration.

    RapidShare AG was founded in Switzerland, was always based at the address cited in the imprint and was always managed with an authentic name without any anonymous intermediary companies. The drastic measures against Megaupload were obviously seen as necessary by the FBI because the situation was different there. We wish you a great time with RapidShare!"

    "RapidShare Attorney: If We're Shut Down Like Megaupload, Then YouTube, Dropbox, Apple's iCloud Are Next"

    http://www.fastcompany.com/1810967/rapidshare-lawyer-if-were-shut-down-like-megaupload-then-youtube-dropbox-and-apples-icloud-a

  10. I would have pointed out this set is almost entirely Jobim and it a very nice look at not only his work, but an artist working away from home in a fondly sentimental manner and yes, there is the influence of France felt on this recording. Considering it's length of two discs of material, this spins quite well.

  11. yeah JT, this is pretty much a Jobim showcase lovefest. I don't suppose you have any info the players on this?

  12. Great post. Could you repost Show Opinão in flac? The link is dead. Thanks!

  13. thank you alot this album is really sweet

  14. But hey, if you enjoy this album, then there is nothing wrong with one just before this one from 1969. Equally as enjoyable!

  15. very nice, as is your entire blog. thanks for making the effort

  16. Hi, FB, this is just to thank you for whatever you did to your RS settings that allowed me to DL this, A Bad Donato, and Joao Gilberto's 1961 self-titled album, all of which are stunning transfers! Your needle drop of Gilberto's self-titled album is really a thing of beauty! Massive thanks again and all the best, mate!
    Waltz

  17. It seems the mysterious Mr. Bonzon, is Jean Bonzon, a renowned french sound engineer who recorded Georges Brassens, Jacques Brel and so on.

  18. Nice, thanks for the info! More Nara coming up this week, by the way

  19. THANK YOU SO MUCH for this jewell, Mr Flabber!!!

  20. Hi! No download link?

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