Doris Monteiro - self-titled (1964), Universal Japan CD UICY-79608

 

By the time she recorded this 1964 LP, her third and last for Philips before switching over to Odeon for over a decade, Doris Monteiro was 30 years old and had already spent half her life as a professional singer, having been hired to sing on Radio Guanabara and releasing her first hit single "So Voce Se Importasse" at the tender age of 15. (Incidentally, Monteiro's first LP for Philips, released in 1961, was also self-titled.) But by 1964, bossa nova was all the rage, and Monteiro adapts with the times in sticking to an all-bossa set on this release. But Monteiro is perhaps a little ahead of the mainstream here in that she eschews covering anything by Jobim, Luiz Bonfa, or Vinicius de Moraes and instead includes four songs written by the hottest new bossa songwriter, Marcos Valle, including what would become his most recognizable composition, "Samba de Verao" (known to English listeners as "So Nice (Summer Samba)"), a year before Valle would release his own version of the song and 2 years before popular versions from Astrud Gilberto and Walter Wanderley. Speaking of Wanderley, the best known Brazilian organist and his trio accompany Monteiro on about half the tracks here, again 2 years before a similar project with Gilberto on Verve, A Certain Smile A Certain Sadness. The tracks not including Wanderley use a larger backing ensemble with piano, a brass section, and sometimes background acoustic guitar. Another prescient recording included here is Joao Donato & Joao Mello's "Sambou... Sambou," a song that would later be recorded by many other artists including Elza Soares, Joyce, and Eliane Elias. (Donato's own instrumental version of the song would be released on his LP of the same name, which came out in the U.S. in 1965, though a reissue on the UK Cherry Red label says the album is from 1962, and discogs.com has a Polydor version of the LP under a different title from 1963.) Monteiro's voice is a bit deeper than Gilberto, Sylvia Telles, and most of the other best-known Brazilian bossa singers, with a touch of low-end grit. Joe "Sixpack" at slipcue.com writes that early in her career Monteiro took some criticism for her reserved, "cool" vocal style but as times changed she became a kind of icon as Brazil's equivalent of Nico. On this album, her style is definitely reserved but not any more than any of the other breezy bossa singers. The only thing slightly annoying about her vocals is that the recording engineer practically drowns them with echo--really not necessary. Overall, this is an enjoyable outing, if not her absolutely best recording.

This Universal Japan CD release has commendable audio quality, despite the above-mentioned overuse of echo in the original recording. Given how hard it is to find and afford classic bossa titles like this one, the "budget price" of this CD is also a point in its favor. From the same series as the Sylvia Telles CD I reviewed recently, as of this writing this disc is priced at $14 on Dusty Groove and $9 before shipping on CDJapan.

Do I Really Need This record?  The Brazilian music section of my collection is woefully smaller than the other styles I collect, so, given the difficulty in finding and affording music from this era, this is an essential addition. I just hope Universal Japan continues to release more albums in this style from this time period.