Heart Condition

Upon arriving at my second decade of interviewing musicians and reviewing music, I must confess that it’s the people not their performance which holds me in this underpaid pursuit.  That and the hundreds of free tips that have improved my playing and understanding of this art at a level I could never hope to attain.   

In the course of interviewing Leny Andrade, Brazilian chanteuse extraordinaire, I encountered a presence so overpowering one on one; I found myself looking for retreat, to recoup some of my cool and professional demeanor.   She stopped the interview say how glad she was to talk to someone who understood her musical skills as a musician would. So I’ll detail those skills here even though that’s just half the story. 

Leny Andrade

There was magic being performed nightly on a dead end street in Rio at the Becos Das Garrafas (Bottles Bar).  Besides the musicians the cast included writers like Aloisio De Olivera, showmen and dancers like Lenny Dale even the lighting wizards like Zoseluis Olivera.  The impromptu jam and rap sessions that went far into the night and next morning echoed up from the cul de sac to the ears of the weary residents, causing them to send bottles whistling down at the artists.

The performers who lived sometimes five or six to a room, found their reward in the excitement generated by the birth of a new music form; the diversity of expression was enormous.

  A portion of this and a tiny sampling of performers, Tom (Antonio Carlos) Jobim, Joào Gilberto, Astrid Gilberto and Oscar Castro Neves, found it’s way to America and for us, became the Bossa Nova. In Brazil the lesser known but equally important contributors included guitarists, Durval Ferreira and Roberto Menescal, pianist Luiz Eça,, Alberico Campana, drummer Doum Romao, singers Wilson Simonal, Carlos Lira, Maysa, Marcos Valle and most important for our purposes here Leny Andrade.

Though it was Paquito D’Rivera, who first turned me onto Leny Andrade with his compositional tribute, "Leny.  Her name has come up a number of times in conversation with a number of musicians from Danilo Perez to Tony Bennett. ^[1]    The attraction I believe stems from the fact she approaches music as an instrumentalist and arranges her harmonies, rhythm changes and melodies with the same care, inventiveness and acumen as any horn player.  She was originally headed toward a career as a concert pianist, having won a scholarship at age six to study classical piano.  It was a path she pursued until she was asked to use her voice not her hands at an audition.

“ At the end of an audition the teacher asked us to sing a song, Leny said. "After I finished, the teacher turned to me and said Leny will do the solo.  Walking out of the hall I realized I was in love with this new feeling.  When I went Home and my mother wasn’t listening I started to play and sing.  The feeling was marvelous, my course was set. From that moment to today I don’t want to live without singing." 

 Paquito pointed out to me that Leny shares the special gift with Carmen McRae of understanding the words of a tune and breathing life into the lyrics, so the audience lives what the composer intended.  Though she freely admits neither her movements nor her repartee are as polished or choreographed as some singers.  It's the soaring of her voice, which catches your ear and eye.  "I applied my knowledge of harmony, rhythm and melody to the changes and the songs that came my way, Leny explained.  "I’m in love with the rich harmonies and counter melodies.  In my arrangements I have a preoccupation to insert my own ideas.  Every song to me has a special time.  Why play the same way, in the same meter.    If I sing "Wave" the same way on my new album (Maiden Voyage).  Everyone will know what's coming from the first note. I hate when the people sleep.  I changed “Night In Tunisia” for the same reason, and also for Dizzy who was simpatico and agreed, there should be no more limits placed on a vocalist than any instrumentalist.  I should be free to interact with any of the instruments on stage.  Create a bass line or improvise off a pedal point.”

Though she played at New York’s Town Hall and The Smithsonian, if you ask Leny for high points of her career she will point to her encounter with Bill Evans in Mexico (where the documenting off jazz there is another story).  Where her love of harmony found itself manifest in human form.

"At the end of the night the club, the Rigus Bar, closed for the public.  I had been playing with trumpeter Chilo Moran, pianists Mario Patron, who Bill loved and Luiz Eca one of the most important composers and instrumentalists in Brazil, with whom Bill often played four hands.  Bill came up to the stage and we performed "Corcovado."  When I started to improvise he looked at me at first like, 'she is crazy.'  Then when I had finished, he became a fan.  I would always look up from my performances when he and Helen Keane were in Brazil and see him sitting in the audience."

In an attempt to spread her fame to the general public in America she has released a new album on Chesky Records.  Though she has recorded scores of albums in her Homeland and abroad, finding them here is a collector’s nightmare.  Her new album on which she is joined by Fred Hirsch, features some Bossa chestnuts which she has retooled, also features tunes like Tarde by Milton Nasciemento and the first vocal version of "Maiden Voyage" I have heard.  Contained herein are tributes to those early pioneers from the Bottles Bar, like Lenny Dale, who Leny never forgot and never stops talking about.  Perhaps this recording will cause RCA and Polygram to release the scores of albums on which she appears with these pioneers.  And Leny Andrade’s visits will become more frequent although I doubt if any visit from Leny will ever be regular.