Leny Andrade

Brazilian vocalist Leny Andrade earned acclaim for her mastery of improvisational phrasing and earned the description “Brazil’s one true jazz singer” from observers. Decades of late nights and cigarette smoke lent her mezzo-soprano a deep, raspy texture; performing almost entirely in Portuguese, she moved fluidly among sultry love songs, introspective blues numbers, and jubilant sambas. Her dynamic fusion of Brazilian rhythms with contemporary jazz, which carried scat and vocalese techniques into bossa nova, samba, and MPB, first appeared on the 1961 debut A Sensação, the 1965 hit Estamos Ai, and the self-titled 1968 release.

Throughout the 1970s she issued well-received recordings for Odeon—Alvoroço in 1973 and the 1975 set simply titled Leny Andrade—followed by Registro on CBS in 1979. The 1987 project Cartola 80 Anos paid tribute to the samba pioneer. Global attention greeted the 1994 duet album Coisa Fina with guitarist Romero Lubambo, while her 1995 homage Luz Negra: Nelson Cavaquinho found strong sales across Brazil, Europe, and Asia. She shared a Latin Grammy with pianist and arranger Cesar Camargo Mariano for the 2007 live recording Ao Vivo. Alma Mia, her initial collection of boleros, surfaced in 2010. Enthusiastic notices from Moscow to Los Angeles met both 2014’s Iluminados: Leny Andrade Canta Ivan Lins & Vítor Martins and the album Alegria De Viver recorded with guitarist Roni Ben-Hur.

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1943, Andrade began piano lessons at five under her mother, a classical instructor, and continued formal training for ten years, eventually receiving a scholarship to the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música. That rigorous background later shaped her vocal approach. She made her first radio appearances at age nine on programs such as Clube do Guri broadcast by Rádio Tupi. Six years afterward she became featured singer with the Permínio Gonçalves Orchestra, whose leader was her reed-playing brother.

The emerging bossa-nova sound captivated her in 1958; she informed her surprised mother that she intended to leave classical studies for a career in popular music. The next year she encountered the Ella Fitzgerald-inspired scat of Dolores Duran, an early songwriting collaborator of Antônio Carlos Jobim. Under her brother Dudu’s guidance she immersed herself in the work of Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Anita O’Day. Still a teenager, she performed at Copacabana’s Beco das Garrafas, a hub for bossa and samba experimentation, fronting a trio led by pianist Sergio Mendes.

RCA signed her and issued the 1961 debut A Sensação, an album largely devoted to slow, romantic sambas from an earlier period. She switched to Polydor for the 1963 follow-up A Arte Maior De Leny Andrade, supported by a trio featuring drummer Milton Banana, and the recording displayed her robust, swinging jazz improvisations. After joining EMI Odeon in 1965, she and baritone Pery Ribeiro formed Gemini V alongside the touring trio Bossa Três. The ensemble performed throughout North and South America and Mexico, documenting their bossa and samba repertoire on the studio album Gemini V and the subsequent live set Gemini V En Mexico. Drawn to the country, Andrade relocated there for nearly seven years and met Fitzgerald, Vaughan, and another idol, Carmen McCrae.

Her 1966 self-titled LP placed her alongside bassist Erneo Eger, vibraphonist Breno Sauer, pianist Adan Pinheiro, and drummer Adao Pinheiro. Freed from conventional piano-trio settings, the album presented a refined, forward-looking jazz-samba synthesis whose atmospheric textures and hard-bop drive distinguished it from the prevailing bossa-nova vocal releases. After touring extensively she did not record again until 1972, when she and Ribeiro issued their last joint project, Gemini Cinco Anos Depois. Critical success returned with 1973’s Alvoroço, which featured songs by Ivan Lins and contributions from Milton Nascimento, Robertinho Silva, and Maria Thereza Guinle, with Arthur Verocai among the arrangers. Following tours in Europe and Brazil she delivered a final Odeon release under her own name, then appeared on CBS with the 1979 album Registro produced by Joao Donato.

Two notable 1980s recordings followed. After an engagement at New York’s Blue Note she released an eponymous Pointer album in 1985 that framed samba within jazz as a distinct genre. The tribute Leny Andrade Interpreta Cartola appeared in 1987. Signing with Estudio Eldorao in 1989, she produced the jazz-oriented Luz Neon herself.

Early in the 1990s she issued the well-regarded Eu Quero Ver and Bossa Nova. She moved to New York City in 1993 and performed at forty jazz festivals worldwide during her first year there. The collaborative album Nós with producer-arranger César Camargo Mariano emerged in 1994, the same year she appeared at the Hollywood Bowl and Lincoln Center and released the acoustic duet set Coisa Fina with Romero Lubambo as well as Maiden Voyage with pianist Fred Hersch. Two further tributes arrived in 1995: Letra & Música: Antonio Carlos Jobim recorded with Cristóvão Bastos and Luz Negra: Nelson Cavaquinho por Leny Andrade. She joined Albatroz and issued Bossa Novas in 1998. After an extended world tour she returned with two additional tribute projects for the label, 1994’s Interpreta Ronaldo Bôscoli: E Quero Que a Canção... Seja Você and 1995’s Canta Altay Veloso. That year she received a Sharp prize nomination for Best MPB Female Singer. She took part in a televised Tim Maia tribute in 1998; the audio-video package Ao Vivo sold well from Tokyo to Rio to Mexico City. She maintained a relentless global touring schedule for another year.

In 2005 Andrade joined Marcos Valle, Miéle, Os Cariocas, Roberto Menescal, Wanda Sá, and Zimbo Trio for the concert recording Bossa Nova, Ao Vivo. The 2006 studio collaboration Lua Do Arpoador with guitarist Romero Lubambo became a best-seller and earned a Latin Grammy the following year, when she also released another live album with pianist, composer, and arranger César Camargo Mariano. She concluded the decade with the widely praised bolero collection Alma Mia on Fina Flor, the culmination of years spent researching and gathering material; her subsequent Birdland appearance in New York moved audiences to tears with its impassioned ballad interpretations. The 2013 release As Canções Do Rei assembled songs by Roberto Carlos. The next year she signed with Motema Music for Alegria De Viver alongside guitarist Roni Ben-Hur, focusing exclusively on classic pieces she had not previously recorded, among them Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Estrada Branca” and “Dindi,” Dori Caymmi and Nelson Motta’s “Cantador,” and Pixinguinha’s “Carinhoso.” Simultaneously she self-released Iluminados: Leny Andrade Canta Ivan Lins & Vítor Martins. Biscoito Fino issued Canta Fred Falcão: Bossa Nova in 2018. In 2019 she collaborated with pianist-composer Gilson Peranzzetta on the live album Canções De Cartola E Nelson Cavaquinho, while Fina Flor remastered and reissued Alma Mia, giving the set wider distribution and a larger audience.

Diagnosed with Lewy body dementia as her health declined, Andrade died on July 24, 2023, at the age of eighty.