Nara Leão

Nara Leão’s first album was a revolutionary work. In Nara, released in 1964, the “muse” broke up with bossa nova to give voice to samba and protest songs, bringing to the mainstream composers such as Zé Keti, Nelson Cavaquinho and Cartola. This revolution — that, in its softness, lyricism and beautiful melodies, announced what Brazilian music would be from then on — is told in Nara – 1964, written by journalist and researcher Hugo Sukman for the O Livro do Disco collection (Editora Cobogó).

In her album, a key to understand that time period, moved by the social depths of samba* do morro*, Nara created work that is, above all, political. “This first album, for me, spoke about something I thought was very important, spoke about Brazilian problems. I had this idea of musical journalism, showing the Copacabana people what the morro was doing, like a real reporter,” Nara said.

The narrative shows how the album was able to capture the zeitgeist and create a definitive, atemporal work. Focusing on her creations and songs, Sukman sheds light on the trajectory of visionary artist Nara Leão, while guiding the reader throughout a delicious story of Brazilian music, and of Brazil and its culture.

About the artist
Nara Leão was born in Vitória, Espírito Santo, in 1942, and moved to Rio de Janeiro as a child. Her parents’ apartment, at Atlântica avenue, would soon become the epicenter of bossa nova, with all-night meetings, where her friends, such as João Gilberto, Tom Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes, showed up to sing and play guitar. Restless, before recording her first album, Nara, in January 1964, she moves away from bossa nova and conceives an album focused on Brazilian issues, with sambas and social-issue songs. Her second album, Opinião de Nara (1964), featuring protest songs, originates her famous Opinião shows (1964), where she shared the stage with Zé Kati and João do Vale. Nara is the first to record composers such as Sidney Miller, Edu Lobo, Jards Macalé and Chico Buarque, alongside whom, in 1996, she won the Festival da Record with the song “A banda”, a huge national hit. In 1968 she participates in the collective album Tropicália (1968), recording “Lindonéia”, composed for her by Caetano Veloso, based on a work by Rubens Gerchman. The following year, with the aggravation of the military regime, she runs to Paris for her exile. Returning to Brazil in 1971, she divides her time between motherhood, studying Psychology at PUC-Rio and recording important albums such as Meus amigos são um barato (1977), Com açúcar com afeto (1980) and Nasci para bailar (1982). She died in 1989, leaving behind 24 albums and a priceless legacy for Brazilian music and culture.

About the author
Hugo Sukman is a Rio de Janeiro journalist, writer, music critic and curator of the new MIS (Museu da Imagem e do Som – Image and Sound Museum) RJ, being built at Copacabana’s Atlântica avenue. With 30 years of experience in Brazilian newsrooms, he has worked as a reporter, a film and music critic and a Culture editor at Jornal do Brasil, and later O Globo, where he worked as a Paris correspondent from 2000 to 2003. He wrote, in partnership with actor and playwright Marcos França, a biographical play about Nara Leão, A menina disse coisas (2018). He’s the Author of Martinho da Vila – Discobiografia, Histórias paralelas – 50 anos de música brasileira and Heranças do samba, the latter in partnership with Aldir Blanc and Luiz Fernando Vianna (both published by Casa da Palavra), Cancioneiro Moacir Santos (Jobim Music), A música de Djavan (Luanda Music), and others.

About the collection
The O Livro do Disco collection was released in 2014 by Cobogó in order to present readers with distinct musical reflections about albums that were, and still are, essential to our cultural and, of course, emotional education. With each title, the reader is invited to dive deep in the history of albums that broke barriers, opened paths and defied convention. O Livro do Disco is for music fans, but also for those who desire a deeper, yet accessible, contact with the context and central figures of works that made music history. In times of fragmented listening and music access through streaming platforms, finding (again) these albums in their totality is a way of hearing what they have to say about our times.

Specifications
Title Nara Leão: Nara – 1964
Collection O Livro do Disco [The Album’s Book]
Artist Nara Leão
Author Hugo Sukman
Language Portuguese
Page count 224
Cover: Radiográfico
Size 13x19 cm
Format paperback
Year 2022