Artist Profiles: Elis Regina

“Singing for me is a sacred,” said Elis Regina. Coming to prominence at the peak of bossa nova years in the late 1950s and early 1960s and considered by many Brazilians as one of their finest female singers, her ability to bring the sensual emotions of a song to life made her a myth in her own lifetime.

This small petite dark haired woman stunned everyone with the perfectly pitched purity of her gorgeous voice, a voice which seemed effortlessly capable of capturing both strength and vulnerability, of evoking the mixture of emotions people often travel through in a brief moment.

Born Elis Regina de Carvalho on March 17, 1945 in Port Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil into a modest family she was from an early age precociously talented and ambitious for fame. At that age of eleven she was singing on Mauricio Sobrinhos program on the local Radio Gaucha in front of a live audience at the Cine Castelo, making her first professional deal as a singer with station in 1959.

The following year she went to Rio de Janeiro to record her first single and in 1961, when she was only sixteen, the same record label, Continental, released her first LP called Viva a Brotolandia. That eclectic set, featuring calypso and rock and roll tunes showed from the beginning her enormous versatility.

By 1962 she had received two major awards: Queen of the Disco Club (1961) and Best Singer of the Year (1962). In 1965 she reached national fame almost overnight when she performed Edu Lobo and Vinicius de Moraes’ “Arrastao” at the first Brazilian Popular Music Festival televised by Excelsior TV. Her attractive clothes and trademark performance style of moving her hands and rotating her arms in the air for emphasis as she sang was integral to the impact of her performance.

Elis was an early champion of the composers of her generation of both bossa nova and the blossoming Tropicalia movement. Her 1966 album Elis, included the first recording of the song “Cancao do Sal”, by Milton Nascimento. She went on to record the early songs of Ivan Lins (“Madalena”), Tavito/ Ze Rodrix (“Casa no Campo”) and Belchior (“Como Nossos Pais”). By being the first to record the songs of Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Joao Bosco, Aldir Blanc, Renato Teixeira, Fatima Guedes she helped bring their music to mainstream audiences.

In the mid-1960s with Jair Rodrigues she did a number of concerts called Dois na bossa at Sao Paulo’s Paramount Theatre which captured the imagination of the time. Their success led to three albums together and one of the most important Brazilian Music TV shows, O Fino da Bossa, aired in 1965.

In 1975 she worked for sixteen months at Sao Paulo’s Bandeirantes Theatre in the autobiographical show, Falso brillante. From then onwards she was regarded as a huge star.
She had what has been described as a stormy life. She was married to her first husband Ronaldo Boscoli for six years bearing a son, Joao Marcelo. During this time however she fell in love with Cesar Camargo Mariano with whom she was working on Elis & Tom, an album recorded in the United States with key bossa nova composer Tom Jobim, which many regard as her finest and which is certainly one of her most popular.

After having commemorated 10 years with Jorge Ben and Jair Rodrigues as part of the cast of artists in 1973, president of Phonogram (Phillips), Andre Midani, verified that the following year Elis Regina would be celebrating 10 years with the label. Having had massive success with such songs as Casa no Campo and Aguas de Marco over the previous years, Midani asked Elis if there was anything she really wanted. “Record an album of music by Tom Jobim… with Tom Jobim,” she said.

In January of 1974, Antonio Carlos Jobim received a telephone call from Andre Midani, proposing the recording of a record with Elis Regina. Tom accepted the invite.
Philips invited Aloysio de Oliveira (1914-1995) to be producer of the project; he was already a friend of all involved. The original budget didn’t allow for sending everybody to the US, where Tom had been living for some years. It would be cheaper to record in Brazil, but for some motive Tom couldn’t travel.

So, on the 20th of February, Elis Regina and her husband Cesar Camargo Mariano went to Los Angeles, accompanied by Aloisio de Oliveira and Joao Marcello (son of Elis and Ronaldo Boscoli), as well as members of Cesar’s band, Helio Delmiro (guitar), Luisao (bass) and Paulinho Braga (drums). They were followed a few days later by Roberto de Oliveira, Elis’ manager and responsible for the idea of the whole project along with the mission of recording a documentary for television.

The final result left everyone involved happy. Tom was later quoted as saying: “It was excellent because Elis is an incredible singer. The record featured a great repertory accompanied by excellent musicians. And a fantastic pianist, Cesar Camargo Mariano.”

With Mariano she had two children, Pedro and Maria Rita. Both of her children have become musicians. In 1969, her international career took off when she toured the main European and Latin American cities.
Many years later, a chat about back catalogs between Joao Marcello Boscoli (president of Trama) and the artistic vice-president of Universal, Max Pierre, led to the idea of mixing the classic “Elis & Tom” in stereo and 5.1 surround.

During three months, Cesar Camargo Mariano, who co-produced, played piano and did most of the arrangements on the original 1974 recordings (and who was also married to Elis at the time), worked on the project in the Trama studios alongside sound engineer Luis Paulo Serafim.

Cesar’s first concern was to change nothing of the original recording. He created a map with the positions of the instruments during the recording at the MGM studios in Los Angeles. The result is Elis & Tom.

Elis Regina died January 19, 1982 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Discography

Viva a Brotolândia (1961)
Poema de Amor (1962)
Ellis Regina (1963)
O Bem do Amor (1963)
Dois na Bossa (1965)
O Fino do Fino (1965)
Samba, Eu Canto Assim! (1965)
Dois na Bossa nº2 (1966)
Elis (1966)
Dois na Bossa nº3 (1967)
Elis Especial (1968)
Elis, Como & Porque (1969)
Elis Regina in London (1969)
Honeysuckle Rose Aquarela Do Brasil, withToots Thielemans (1969)
Em Pleno Verão (1970)
Elis no Teatro da Praia com Miele & Bôscoli (1970)
Ela (1971)
Elis (1972)
Elis – no 2 (1973)
Elis & Tom (1974)
Falso Brilhante (1976)
Elis (1977)
Transversal do Tempo (1978)
Vento de Maio (1978)
Essa Mulher (1979)
Elis Especial (1979)
Saudades do Brasil (1980)
Elis (1980)
Montreux Jazz Festival 1979, with Hermeto Pascoal (1982)
Luz das Estrelas (1984)
Personalidade (1987)
Elis Regina no Fino da Bossa (1994)
Dose Dupla-Elis Regina (1994)
Elis ao Vivo (1995)
Sucessos Inesquecíveis de Elis Regina, 5-CD boxed set compilation (2001)
20 Anos de Saudade (2002)
Little Pepper The Definitive Collection (2004)
Pérolas Raras (2006)

DVDs

Elis Regina MPB Especial 1973 – black and white DVD released in 2005 (2005)
Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (2006)
Elis 3 DVD box set – composed of Na Batucada da Vida, Doce de Pimenta, and Falso Brilhante (2006)