Alaide Costa started performing professionally at the tail end of the "radio singer" era, and was a quick convert to the new bossa nova sound that swept Brazil in the late 1950s... Although she embraced the new material, her personal style remained rooted in the pop vocals/cabaret tradition of the past. Health troubles sidelined her for much of her career, but for many fans of Brazilian pop, her few albums are hallmarks of classiness, power and emotion. Here's a quick look at her career...
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Alaide Costa "Gosto De Voce" (RCA Victor, 1959)
Alaide Costa "Canta Suavemente" (RCA, 1960)
Radio-era samba cancao, on the cusp of the bossa nova revolution. This was Costa's second album, and it's significant for including several of the earliest recorded versions of songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim, Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal... several of the main architects of the new sound. The poppish arrangements are a hangover from the 'Fifties, though, a bit clunky in comparison to the sleek bossa tones that would come later on... Interesting historically, but not transcendent in the way that the best-known bossa hits would be.
Alaide Costa "Joia Moderna" (RCA Victor, 1961)
Alaide Costa "Afinal..." (Audio Fidelity, 1963)
One of the first big pop singers of the 1950s to embrace bossa nova, Alaide Costa fell out of the public eye by the decade's end. She reemerged briefly in 1963 to cut an album of new bossa tunes. The arrangements here are low-key, her vocals are smooth -- this isn't dazzling or wildly emotive, but it is understated and classy. Definitely worth checking out if you are looking into the classic bossa era...
Alaide Costa "Alaide Costa" (Som Maior, 1965)
Alaide Costa & Oscar Castro-Neves "Alaide Costa E Oscar Castro-Neves" (EMI-Odeon, 1973)
Alaide Costa "Alaide Costa" (EMI-Odeon, 1975)
Alaide Costa "Coracao" (EMI-Odeon, 1976)
Alaide Costa "Aguas Vivas: Alaide Costa Canta Herminio Bello De Carvalho" (Vento De Raio, 1982)
A syrupy tribute to songwriter Herminio Bello de Carvalho, who had "discovered" Clementina De Jesus back in the 1960s. Costa, too, had her heyday long before this CD was produced -- a veteran of the early bossa nova scene, she is featured her in a torchy style closer to Sarah Vaughan than to most of her Lusophone contemporaries.
Alaide Costa "Amiga De Verdade" (Independente, 1988)
Alaide Costa & Joao Carlos Assis Brasil "Alaide Costa E Joao Carlos Assis Brasil" (Movieplay, 1995)
Alaide Costa "Falando De Amor" (CID, 2000)
Alaide Costa "Rasguei A Minha Fantasia" (Caravelas, 2002)
Alaide Costa "Tudo O Que Tempo Me Deixou" (Lua, 2005)
Alaide Costa "Voz E Piano" (Lua, 2005)
