Quick Facts
Biography
Leny de Andrade Lima, better known as Leny Andrade, was born in Rio de Janeiro, on January 26, 1943, and is a Brazilian singer and musician. Both Andrade's first and last names are sometimes misspelled in English as "Lenn", "Leni", and "Adrade". She has had several hits on the Brazilian charts. In 2007 she shared a Latin Grammy Award with Cesar Camargo Mariano for Best MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) Album, Ao Vivo.
She began her career singing in clubs, lived five years in Mexico and spent a good part of her life living in the United States and Europe. She studied piano at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music.
Leny Andrade has performed with Paquito D'Rivera, Luiz Eça, Dick Farney, João Donato, Eumir Deodato, Pery Ribeiro, and Francis Hime. Andrade's eclectic style is a synthesis of samba and jazz.
Reception
Andrade, considered by many the greatest singer of Brazilian jazz, has never had great commercial success, but is a well-respected jazz artist. She has been described by Tony Bennett as the "Ella Fitzgerald of Brazil". In Europe where she toured, she was the Brazilian First Lady of Jazz, building a huge fan base in the Netherlands and Italy. She recorded the album Embraceable You in July 1991 at Volendam, the Netherlands.
New York Times critic Stephen Holden wrote of Andrade's performance at Birdland on August 27, 2008, "To describe Ms. Andrade as both the Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald of bossa nova only goes so far in evoking a performer whose voice seems to contain the body and soul of Brazil. You may think you know "The Girl from Ipanema", the final number in the show's opening medley of Jobim songs. But you haven't really absorbed it until you've heard Ms. Andrade sing it in Portuguese; disgorge might be a better word than sing, since, like everything else she performs, it seems to well up from the center of the earth."
Discography
- A sensação (1961, RCA Victor)
- A arte maior de Leny Andrade (1963, Polydor)
- Gemini V – Show na boate Porão 73 (1965, Odeon)
- Estamos aí (1965, Odeon)
- Gemini cinco anos depois Pery Ribeiro & Leny Andrade (1972, Odeon)
- Alvoroço (1973, Odeon)
- Expo–Som 73, ao vivo (1973, Odeon)
- Leny Andrade (1975, Odeon)
- Registro (1979, Columbia)
- Leny Andrade (1979, CBS)
- Presença de Leny Andrade e Os Cariocas (1979, CBS)
- Leny Andrade (1984, RCA/Pointer)
- Cartola 80 anos (1988, CBS)
- Luz neon (1989, Eldorado)
- Eu quero ver (1990, Eldorado)
- Bossa nova (1991, Eldorado)
- Embraceable You (1991, Timeless)
- Embraceable you (1993, Som Livre)
- Nós (1994, Velas with Cesar Camargo Mariano)
- Maiden Voyage (Chesky, 1994)
- Coisa fina (1994)
- Antonio Carlos Jobim, letra e música (1995, Lumiar Discos)
- Luz negra – Nelson Cavaquinho por Leny Andrade (1995, Velas)
- Bossas novas (1998, Albatroz)
- Leny Andrade canta Altay Veloso (2000, Paradox)
- E quero que a canção seja você (2001, Albatroz)
- Iluminados – Leny Andrade sings Ivan Lins & Vítor Martins (2014)