Elis Catharsis

A French band with a very distinctive sound centered around Roland Bocquet's ghostly Farfisa organ. Their first album (recorded March 1971 at Studio ETA) was a mixture of easily accessible tunes, strange wordless chanting, high hippie spirits, Arabian elements, strong percussion and a few avant-garde excursions. Their music had a very spontaneous feeling, as if the group was assembled for some kind of occult ritual using music to reach a higher consciousness. Arguably they had some common ground with the early Pink Floyd and Amon Düül philosophically, but it lead to other conclusions musically. Masq is also notable for its surrealistic cover design…

Released after Regina's successful show Transversal Do Tempo, the album's concept was to portray the perplexity in the face of Brazil's complexity. Its biggest hit was Milton Nascimento's "Morro Velho," but "Fascinação," "Sinal Fechado," "Deus Lhe Pague," "O Rancho Da Goiabada," "Saudosa Maloca," "Querelas Do Brasil," and "Cartomante" also were successful. Arrangements/piano by César Camargo Mariano.

One of Elis Regina's many qualities was her searching for new composer talent. In this album she recorded two songs from one of her findings, Renato Teixeira. Renato earned his living as a jingle writer when this Elis' recording of 'Romaria' launched him to become one of Brazil's better known singers/writers. The song was a hit and quickly became a Brazilian standard.
The other song by Teixeira, however, was unjustly forgotten, having been recorded only by the author (afaik) besides this record. It's 'Sentimental Eu Fico', a fantastic song with amazing lyrics, here receiving no less wonderful arrangement by Cesar Camargo Mariano and, of course, singing by Elis…

Arguably Elis Regina's best early album, 1968's Elis Especial has her accompanied by an uncredited, relentlessly swinging piano trio. The sound quality could be better, but by the end of the first song "Samba do Perado," you won't care anymore - you'll be blissfully tapping your foot. Also included are two lengthy tributes, one to Tom Jobim and the second to the Rio neighborhood of Mangueira.

Classic Brazilian Bossa and Jazz album by the queen Elis Regina and featuring arrangements by Roberto Menescal and Erlon Chaves. Originally released in 1969, this is the 1998 Brazilian reissue.

Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina - Elis & Tom (1974) {Verve Originals Series, B0011296-02 rel 2008}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 215 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 92 Mb | Artwork | 5% repair rar
© 1974, 2008 Philips / Verve / Universal | B0011296-02
Jazz / Bossa Nova / Brazilian Jazz / MPB

An incredible album – and a landmark session that showed that the bossa nova was still alive and well in the 1970s! The album pairs the breathy jazz vocals of Elis Regina with the booze-soaked warmth of Antonio Carlos Jobim – in a set of spare arrangements that feature a lot of touches from Cesar Carmargo Mariano, whose work on Elis Regina's 70s sessions is still the stuff of legend! Elis' vocals dominate, but when Tom comes in, the result is even more spectacular – especially given the generally light instrumentation used on most tracks – which means that the vocals carry the bulk of the sound on the set!