Cascatinha & Inhana
Cascatinha & Inhana "Volume 1: India" (Revivendo, 1996)
Lovely, gentle, delightfully antiquated vocal duets from one of the great sertanejo acts of the pre-bossa nova "radio singer" era. Francisco dos Santos (aka Cascatinha) and Ana Eufrosina da Silva Santos (Inhana) started singing as a duet in the early 1940s and steadily won over radio audiences in Sao Paulo. No mystery why: they sounded wonderful, particularly Inhana, who had one of the purest, prettiest female voices ever recorded, with beautiful, precise phrasing. They sang a variety of romantic and regional styles -- tangos, boleros, toadas, a samba here and there, something called a guarania and, most delightfully, a sugared-up version of the uptempo northeastern baiao. Everything sounds wonderful. A Brazilian fan recommended these records to me, and she was totally right -- I could listen to these discs for weeks on end. Nice sound quality, too! There's a sweet, dreamy feel to these songs, with gentle arrangements framing Inhana's crystal-clear vocals... The 1952 hit, "India" was covered decades later by MPB star Gal Costa, who made it the title track of one of her finest albums of the 1970s... Nice to discover where Costa's inspiration came from!
Cascatinha & Inhana "Volume 2: Meu Primeiro Amor" (Revivendo, 1996)
More great stuff. Beautiful. As with the first album, this spans the early 1950s to the early '60s, though a lot of it harkens back to an earlier era. I love it. The title track, "Meu Primeiro Amor," was later revived by Nara Leao... Nice to hear the original, though!
Cascatinha & Inhana "Volume 3: A Saudade E Demais" (Revivendo, 1998)
Also quite good. Although most of the tracks span the same timeframe as the first two collections (1951-1962), this disc kicks off with a recording from 1971, "Flor Do Cafezal," which has a noticably modern ambience, but still fits in stylistically with the rest of their work. It's all very pretty
Cascatinha & Inhana "Volume 4: Despertar De Sertao" (Revivendo, 1998)
Cascatinha & Inhana "Volume 5: Flor Serrana" (Revivendo, 1998)
Cascatinha & Inhana "Dose Dupla" (Warner, 1998)
Cascatinha & Inhana "Dose Dupla, v.2" (Warner, 1998)
Cascatinha & Inhana "Grandes Sucessos" (Ovacao, 2001)
Cascatinha & Inhana "Warner Arquivos" (Warner Continental)
A twelve-song best-of set... Short on songs, but it probably has great sound quality.
