Maysa

Prior to the rise of bossa nova, Maysa shared top billing with Dolores Duran as the leading singer-songwriter of the era. From her early teens she composed, penning the samba-canção “Adeus” at age twelve; the song became a standout on her debut album and reflected her lasting attachment to the emotional fossa idiom. Even so, she introduced bossa nova to international audiences through engagements at the Olympia in Paris, the Blue Angel in the United States, and the Cassino Estoril in Portugal, scoring successes with the classics “Meditação” (Tom Jobim/Newton Mendonça), “Dindi” (Tom Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira), and “Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você” (Tom Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes). Her lasting reputation as a composer rests chiefly on the bolero-tinged sambas-canções “Ouça” and “Meu Mundo Caiu,” while “Felicidade Infeliz” also found favor. As a performer she scored with “Bom dia, Tristeza” (Adoniran Barbosa/Vinicius de Moraes), “Ne Me Quite Pas” (Jacques Brel), “Solidão” (Antônio Bruno), “Bloco da Solidão” (Jair Amorim/Evaldo Gouveia), and “Tristeza” (Haroldo Lobo/Niltinho).

Wed at eighteen to an heir of the wealthy Matarazzo family descended from the Count Matarazzo, she gave birth two years later to her only child, Jayme Monjardim, who later directed for television. Her singing impressed producer Roberto Corte-Real, who offered her a recording contract; once her son reached his first birthday she entered the studio. At the time RGE functioned merely as a jingle facility, yet Corte-Real’s determination to launch Maysa transformed it into a full-fledged label. Insisting that her album not inaugurate the new enterprise, she saw it issued as catalog number thirteen. The ten-inch LP Convite Para Ouvir Maysa, released in late 1956, contained eight tracks including the hits “Adeus,” “Resposta,” “Rindo de Mim,” and “Marcada.”

The sudden acclaim strained her marriage; her husband, opposed to her professional life, sought divorce, plunging her into depression that infused her subsequent fossa material with deeper melancholy. The first album’s triumph secured a 1957 variety program on TV Record as well as engagements at the Oásis and Cave nightclubs. Volumes two through four of Convite Para Ouvir Maysa, issued between 1958 and 1959, introduced the enduring pieces “Ouça” and “Meu Mundo Caiu.”

At Ronaldo Bôscoli’s invitation—amid an affair with the composer—she relocated to Rio de Janeiro in 1960, aligning herself with the bossa nova circle and recording its repertoire. There she appeared regularly on television and released the influential LP O Barquinho, supported by Luís Eça, Hélcio Milito, and Bebeto Castilho, musicians who formed the Tamba Trio in 1962 after Bebeto replaced Otávio Bailly. Following her European tour she settled in Spain, where she met her second husband. Returning periodically to Brazil, she performed “Dia da Vitória” (Luís Bonfá/M. H. Toledo) at the Festival Internacional da Canção. In 1969 she staged the live album Canecão Apresenta Maysa and enjoyed a São Paulo season. During the early seventies she expanded into film and television, taking roles in telenovelas and composing for them. The 1976 inclusion of “Meu Mundo Caiu” on the soundtrack of the soap opera Estúpido Cupido revived its popularity among younger listeners. Maysa died instantly in an automobile accident on the Rio-Niterói bridge in January 1977.