The Muse of Bossa Nova, Nara Leão

Nara Loffego Leão (1942-1989) was not only early bossa nova's defining female voice (her sweet, unaffected lilt later became the template for the schoolgirl vocal stylings of Astrud Gilberto). She was an essential part of the movement in its infancy, when as a teenager she opened up her parents' Copacabana apartment as a salon for the likes of Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto to practice, earning her the nickname "The Muse of Bossa Nova". Her versions of "Berimbau" and "Consolação" (both by Baden Powell and Viniçius de Moraes) are considered the definitive vocal interpretations of those standards.



With the release of her first solo album "Nara" (1963, on Elenco), Leão began to forge her own identity, opting to record darker sambas by the indigenous composers Zé Keti and Cartola, which explored themes of poverty and violence in the favelas. Following the military takeover in 1964, Leão's music became increasingly political, and the following year she launched the stage show Opinião in Rio with Keti and Bahian composer João do Vale. It was during this show that Leão famously declared (mainly white, middle-class) bossa nova an "alienating" movement. The show's hit songs "Opinião" (Keti) and "Carcara" (do Vale), both featuring hard backbeats and highly-charged political lyrics, helped define a new genre of samba, "canção do protesto" or protest song.



In the mid-to-late 60s Leão would continue her trend of spotting new composers, and was instrumental in launching the careers of Chico Buarque ("Com Açucar, Com Afeto" and "Ole Ola"), Edu Lobo, Gilberto Gil and singer Maria Bethania (who would take her place as the star of the Opinião after Leão became ill).



In 1968, she joined Gil and Caetano Veloso's Tropicalia movement and sang on the legendary album of the same name. Although her participation was minimal (she recorded two Veloso compositions, including the gorgeous "Deus Vos Salve Esta Casa Santa"), Nara was at that time the most established act on their repetoire.



Leão would release albums only sporadically during the 70s, while she concentrated on her family and a career in Psychology. She died of an inoperable brain tumor in 1989.

Thanks to YouTube user rmboemer for posting this rare footage of Nara on Brazilian TV performing the Jobim standard "Insensatez".

Evie Sands, Forgotten Babe of Rock

In mid-1960s New York, Drama was the daily special. The Brill Building, international headquarters of the girl group sound and home to many of America's greatest pop songwriters, shook from the onslaught of the British Invasion.

In the search for new talent, veteran songwriters Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller signed a seventeen-year-old Brooklyn girl named Evie Sands to their Blue Cat subsidiary. Sands had a rich, deep singing voice that belied her age, and an uncanny ability to sound as if she were on the verge of breaking into tears. Lieber & Stoller wisely matched the young singer with perhaps the most dramatic song in their repertoire (the Trade Martin-penned "Take Me for a Little While"), expecting a sure-fire hit for both their struggling label and for Evie.

Thanks to DailyMotion user SoulPatrol for the rare footage of young Evie performing "Take Me" on TV below:

Evie Sands - Take Me For A Little While
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But instead of a surefit hit, drama ensued. A double agent stole a test pressing of "Take Me For a Little While" and took it back to Chess Records in Chicago, who in turn had soul singer Jackie Ross record a duplicate version within 24 hours. The lawsuit that followed scared deejays away from promoting either version. Evie had missed her first hit.

Fortunately, the young singer still had allies. Also at the recording session were her producers, up-and-coming Americana songwriter Chip Taylor (straight from his success with The Troggs' "Wild Thing") and his collaborator Allan Gorgoni. Taylor and Gorgoni had penned the B-side, "Run Home to Your Mama", a more upbeat, female-empowering number with a southern flavor (and Thanks to Tracy Hide for posting the video ;).

So Taylor and Gorgoni proceeded to pen another monster, and it was a hit, just not for Evie. England's darlings the Hollies charted their cover version of "I Can't Let Go" before Evie ever had a chance. But Evie's original remains the definitive version, with Taylor & Gorgoni's unique, minimal keyboard and bass arrangement almost certainly inspired a certain ubiquitous Springsteen song two decades later (Born in the Where?).

Thanks to GB356 for posting this on YouTube:

After two failures and the folding of the Blue Cat label, Sands, Taylor and Gorgoni took their act to Philly's once-mighty Cameo-Parkway label for their next single. "Picture Me Gone" was a change of pace, a full-blown Northern Soul dancer with a bittersweet lyric, and indeed Jersey soul-singer-cum-British superstar Madeline Bell thought so too, and recorded a hit cover version (again, to my ears, much inferior to Evie's). On the B-side, "It Makes Me Laugh", Sands somehow manages to outdo her own "sad little girl" act, practically breaking into hysterics by the end of the song. It's enormously affecting, but again it wasn't a hit.

But Evie's last single on Cameo was perhaps the singer's biggest missed opportunity. "Angel of the Morning" became a monster charter for Merilee Rush, P.P. Arnold, and later Juice Newton, but Evie's original version was barely pressed and never promoted owing to the bankruptcy of Cameo-Parkway two weeks after the record's release.

Soon after, Evie was picked up by easy-listening dynamo A&M, and released her first album, Any Way That You Want Me the following year. The title song, a reworking of an obscurity Taylor had written for the Troggs years before, became Evie's first hit. The album also included a five-years-later version of "Take Me For a Little While", re-recorded in true Carpenters style by the smooth west-coast ears at A&M. This set the tone for Sands' later career, which included a pop-disco album and several singles co-written for admirers such as Dusty Springfield, Cher and Barbra Streisand. Thanks again to YouTube user Tracy Hide.

Evie's career has undergone a revival recently, and the singer is now again recording and touring. Her early singles remain collector's items.