Maysa

Maysa was, together with Dolores Duran, the most popular singer/songwriter in the period immediately before bossa nova. A composer since her teens (at 12 she wrote the samba-canção "Adeus," a hit from her first album), Maysa kept throughout her career her appreciation for the sentimental style known as fossa. Nevertheless, Maysa pioneered in the international style of bossa nova in shows at the Olympia (Paris, France), Blue Angel (U.S.), and the Cassino Estoril (Portugal), having had success with three bossa classics, "Meditação" (Tom Jobim/Newton Mendonça), "Dindi" (Tom Jobim/Aloysio de Oliveira), and "Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você" (Tom Jobim/Vinicius de Moraes). Maysa's everlasting fame as a composer is credited mainly to her bolero-influenced sambas-canções "Ouça" and "Meu Mundo Caiu." She also had success with her "Felicidade Infeliz." As an interpreter, her hits were "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). Having married the heir of the family of millionaire descendents of the Count Matarazzo at 18, two years later she was already pregnant with her only son, Jayme Monjardim, who would later become a TV director. Maysa Matarazzo impressed producer Roberto Corte-Real with her singing and he invited her to record. Maysa waited for her son to turn a year old and then recorded her first album. The company, RGE, was still then a jingle recording facility and became a phonographic label due to Corte-Real's insistence in launching Maysa. She preferred her album not to be the first one produced by the new company, and it was released as number 13. The 10" LP Convite Para Ouvir Maysa (late 1956) had eight...