Como & porque

Elis Regina

album cover

The How and Why of Greatness

Elis Regina arrived at the first ever Brazilian Popular Music Festival in 1965 as a new sensation, the winner of a televised song competition. She'd just begun collaborating with composers Baden Powell, Caetano Veloso, and others affiliated with what became the Musica Popular Brasileira movement. By the end of her performance of Edu Lobo's "Arrastao," Regina had tears streaming down her cheeks, her arms held out in a crucifix position—a not-so-subtle comment on Brazil's military dictatorship. That's all it took to propel her to stardom.

Regina was showbiz and art and political theater all rolled up into one devastating, impossible-to-deny voice. She had the ability to tiptoe through bombast, and at times conveyed, through the glasslike transparency of her singing, much more than whatever the words said. In her life choices Regina (1945-1982) reminded some of Janis Joplin; she had a volatile temper, and like Joplin struggled with addiction—she died of an overdose weeks after marrying for the third time. (In Brazil her death registered as a national loss: Over 100,000 people turned up to mourn, and sing songs she made famous, at her memorial service, which was held in a soccer stadium.)

The spry Como & porque is among the best of a stack of classic albums—those smitten with Regina have a journey of at least a dozen truly sublime discoveries ahead. This one is notable for her completely untroubled singing and the similarly light arrangements, sometimes with just a trio and sometimes with sweeping orchestral backing. Handling tricky melodies with deceptive ease, Regina shows different aspects of her vocal personality on each one. She multitracks her voice into a chorale for the cascading fantasy "Casa forte," demands answers to basic questions (like "How?" and "Why?") of a mystical deity on "Canto de ossanha," and breezes through Milton Nascimento's "Vera Cruz" as though surveying the breathtaking landscape from a low-flying plane.

Genre: World, Brazil
Released: 1968, Verve/Universal
Key Tracks: "Vera Cruz," "Casa forte," "Watch What Happens"
Catalog Choice: Aquarela do Brasil (with Toots Thielemans); Elis & Tom
Next Stop: Gal Costa: Gal Tropical
After That: Maria Rita (Regina's daughter): Maria Rita
Book Pages: 639–640

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Comments:

#1 from Whit Andrews, Over there - 09/23/2008 9:14

Brazilian pop is cool like the cool you feel on sunburn when you slip into the shade of a dune. There’s the warmth, this time, there underneath the sudden sweet chill that’s only there on the surface. I’ve been listening to Elis Regina’s “Como & porque” for a few cycles, and I’m enchanted as always by the ripply, blissful Brazilian pop sound from the era at hand.

#2 from Gary Reese, Houston - 04/07/2010 5:58

That was beautiful. There hardly is a singer, popular or classical, that I feel as emotional about as Elis. Elis vive!

1000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die

Como & porque

Elis Regina

The How and Why of Greatness

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