Nara Leão, the Musa da Bossa Nova (Bossa Nova's Muse, as she is affectionately known), was a prominent figure in bossa nova. She didn't restrict herself as a bossa nova singer, though, and was one of the first artists to engage in the movement later known as "canção de protesto" (protest song), an artistic movement which denounced military dictatorship in Brazil. She launched the careers of such composers/interpreters as Chico Buarque, Zé Keti, Martinho da Vila, Edu Lobo, Paulinho da Viola, and Fagner. An international performer in spite of her short, uneducated voice, she left an expressive discography even though death caught her by surprise at such a precocious age…
The Turtles' first album was recorded in a frantic hurry, in response to the hit status achieved by their debut single, "It Ain't Me Babe." At the time, the members were barely out of high school, a situation that might have caused a lot of other young musicians to fold up under the strain of the moment - there was no time to write (and barely time to find) the songs the members might have seemed worthy of so momentous an event (which it would have been) as a debut long-player. But the members were smart and they were also lucky - they reached out to more of Bob Dylan's songbag, and also back to their own high-school past in folk music as the Crosswind Singers. Thus, their debut album led with a chiming electric rendition of Howard Kaylan's 1963-vintage "Wanderin' Kind"…