Nara Leao

Garota De Ipanema
 

Bossa Nova Singer & Muse
MPB Trendsetter & Activist

Brazilian Music

Nara Leao [Box Set]
(2002)

A Mammoth Box Set brings together 14 Albums Covering her musical career from 1964 - 1975, plus a Book with her Biography and a Bonus CD of previously unreleased recordings. Although nicknamed "The Muse of Bossa Nova", Nara, in her recordings, was anything but: she wouldn't record her first bona fide Bossa Nova album until the 1971 two-LP set Dez Anos Depois (recorded while in self-exile in Paris). But she was much more. In her 1964 eponymous debut solo LP, Nara (re-)introduced middle class audiences to then-nearly-forgotten samba greats Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho and Ze Keti, and by and large spurred a samba "renaissance". That very same year, shortly after the military coup, she starred in the Opiniao show with Ze Keti and Joao do Vale, and gave voice to a whole generation who had been stilled by truculence. As if that alone weren't enough, throughout the Sixties Nara (together with Elis Regina) was the springboard for then-fledgling songwriters Chico Buarque, Sidney Miller, Paulinho da Viola, Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil among others, while consistently delving time and again into the treasure trove of The Great Brazilian Songbook and keeping herself unfailingly open to the new yet wisely eschewing the mere novelty. This set is expensive, sure; but it's also a unique opportunity (and beautifully packaged, too) to get to know a true trendsetter, without whom Brazilian music would have been much poorer. --an Amazon reviewer
 

Nara Leao [BOX SET]
this box set includes Nara Leao's last
12 albums and a bonus CD with rarities
(2002)

I Love MPB: Amor Nas Estrelas
(2004)

Brazilian collection for prominent figure in bossa nova (Bossa Nova's Muse, as she is affectionately known), part of the 'I Love MPB' series from Universal.

Garota De Ipanema
(1986)

This are among the finest female vocal renditions of the classic bossa nova tunes in classic bossa nova style. Other Brasilian vocalists have surpassed Nara in many respects, but not in rendering bossa nova material. Beautifully produced, beautifully performed, it is without doubt a desert island disc for anyone who loves this music. --an Amazon reviewer

Dez Anos Depois
(1971)

Vento De Maio
(1967)

O Canto Livre de Nara
(1965)
 

Nara
(1964)

See Also:
Samba   Bossa Nova   Index