Dora Lopes – Enciclopédia da Gíria
Mocambo / Rozenblit 1957
Is this a Pride Month post? Sort of, because Dora Lopes was possibly the first “out” singer in Brazilian popular music. But this record was before anyone outside Rio scenesters knew or cared about her sexuality, and even before she was the proprietor of O Caixotinho, one of Rio’s first lesbian nightclubs that served the Copacabana area beginning in the second half of the 60s. This 1957 album is notable for other reasons, like being released on the small Recife imprint Mocambo, and for the fact that Dora gets composer credits on all but a couple songs here in a era when women songwriters were not the norm. The songs and arrangements fit more in the jazz-samba world than the nascent bossa nova scene. Continue reading
