With a
Little
Luck

Two successful Brazilian singers and composers who decided to leave it all behind and restart their carriers in the U.S. have just released their first solo CD. From different roots and with different styles they both show why Brazilian music is the richest in the world.

Liana Alagemovits

In order to conquer success, we need more than just luck. To make our dreams come true, we need to believe in ourselves and in our long battles. We also need jogo de cintura, the Brazilian way to name the ability to improvise in front of unexpected circumstances and obstacles.

Luck comes as a consequence of persistence. Often we can find these two ingredients in the lives of the artists, especially those Brazilian adventurers who leave their country hoping that one day, they will make it in the Big World.

Sorte (Luck) is the title of Sônia Santos' first CD in the USA. In this record Sônia reveals herself as a more mature artist, proud of her roots. She represents Brazil as a country of mixed races and rhythms. Singer Ana Gazzola, a native from Rio Grande do Sul, also caught the fever and released her CD Brazilicious, in which she shows a sort of seduction in her singing style.

Ana brings in her compositions a different face of Brazil. Music had a strong presence in her family and she started singing and playing the guitar at an early age. Soon after she started singing professionally she moved to Rio de Janeiro, where she performed in several night clubs. When she got a contract at Caligola, the famous bar in Ipanema, Ana Gazzola's name was already around in the local music scene. Promoter Ricardo Amaral got her to sing in the Alô Alô show and her success in it took her to Italy on a tour.

Back in Brazil she worked with famous pianist Luiz Carlos Vinhas on a tour around the country. Ana got in touch with the different regional rhythms and styles of Brazilian music which would later influence her CD Brazilicious. Next, a long season in São Paulo followed. Then, more shows at the most prestigious clubs in Rio de Janeiro.

But Ana realized it was time to expand her horizons. She moved to New York and soon, to Los Angeles. From the beginning, Ana was impressed by the professionalism of the Americans and with the opportunities for work. She realized that in America anything can be accomplished with dedication. So, she decided to start all over again.

In Los Angeles, Ana worked with singer-percussionist Lula and his Afro Brasil band before she put together her own Brazil Sound Band and started working hard to make things happen. In this process she met singer Sônia Santos, who was striving for the same goal and the two singers decided to join efforts.

Sônia Santos had been a symbol of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) for many years when she came to the USA with Frank Fontana's show Oba-Oba. The show was a success in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Michigan.

In Brazil, Sônia had already five records out and she had worked next to artists with the caliber of Djavan and Roberto Carlos. Several of her songs were played as main themes in the Globo TV's novelas (soap operas). Her album Crioula was a sellout and had great reviews by the critics. In several opportunities, Sônia was invited by the Brazilian government to perform in different countries representing the Brazilian culture. After that, she became the solo singer in the Oba-Oba show and came to the U.S. on tour.

Despite her success in Brazil, Sônia decided to stay, put down roots and continue her career in the United States. Great opportunities arose: several shows in the main clubs and music festivals with her Obathala Band in Los Angeles and a part in General Hospital. When she met singer Ana Gazzola, they founded Yellow Green Productions which is a record label, a publishing company and a production company that manages the singers and their careers.

Besides these activities, each singer keeps her own band and style and has recorded her own CD. And each of them shows a different way of making Brazilian music. Afro-Brazilian influences are obvious in Sônia's highly energetic performances. She shows in her music her knowledge and awareness of the historical relationships in Brazilian music. And she conveys her social and spiritual convictions of union, love, and peace.

Writer Lynell George in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times referred to Ana's voice as a filmy silk scarf lightly clinging around a note, a lyric. Her sultry, warm voice impregnates her jazz-influenced compositions and arrangements. Both CDs, Sônia's Sorte and Ana's Brazilicious are currently being distributed in Brazil and can be found in all the Tower Records and Virgin stores throughout the USA.

Liana Alagemovits is a Brazilian journalist. She is with Brazilian Press.

This article was adapted by Patricia Albela.

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Go Back to Brazil

Ana Gazzola, Sônia Santos
& Tonho Baixinho

Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil
King of soccer, lot's to offer
Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil

Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil
Check out the jungle, taste a mango
Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil

From Brasília to Porto Alegre stop in Natal.
Go to Rio, go to Bahia, go to Pantanal,
Fortaleza, Belém, Amazonas or Minas Gerais,
Paraná, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Goiás.

Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil
Land of samba. Ay, caramba!
Go back to Brazil

Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil
Talk a cool talk. bounce when you walk
Go back to Brazil

Goiabada com queijo, farofa, polenta, pirão,
Carne seca, muqueca, churrasco, tutu de feijão
Chimarrão, guaraná, vatapá, caipirinha, café.
Carnaval, batucada, macumba, baião, candomblé.

Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil
Black and white side by side
Go back to Brazil

Go back to Brazil
Go back to Brazil
Go back to, Go back to,
Go back to Brazil...

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Eu Te Amo

Piau & Sônia Santos

Quando você diz que ama
A chama do meu peito explode
Quando você diz que chama
A lava do meu peito escorre

O tempo provará amor
Eu te amo - Eu te adoro

Tudo nessa vida passa 
Esqueça esse corre-corre
Porque o nosso amor é graça
Deixe que ele seja forte

O tempo provará amor
Eu te amo - Eu te adoro

Luz que sempre me alumia
Mão que sempre me socorre
Sonho que me alucina
Como se eu tomasse um porre

O tempo, provará amor
Eu te amo - Eu te adoro

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I Love You

English version by Lori Barth

Every time you tell me you love me
The flame inside my heart burns brighter
Every time I hear you call me
My whole world spins around me

And always I love you
I call you - I adore you

You are the light shinin' for me
Yours is the hand that I'm dreamin'
Get so dizzy when I'm dreamin'
'Cause you make me feel like I'm drinkin'

And always I love you
I call you - I adore you

And when our life has ended
The dangers won't seem so important
Know that we have always been blessed
Love is strong and everlasting

And always I love
I call you - I adore you

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Sete Pontas

Ana Gazzola & Sandra Terra

Quando dormir sonhar
Sete pontas de uma estrela
Sete segredos sagrados
Um desejo na pupila
Largo Regaço
E pra me cobrir, vestes de retalhos,
E as contas do teu colar
Acordar,
Ave da montanha
Sem avenida urbana
Apenas o teu cheiro no lençol
Da cama, da cama...

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Seven Points

English version by Kevin Credle

When I'm asleep, I dream
Seven points of a brilliant star
Seven secrets I keep sacred
One wish in my mind's eye
Asleep on your lap
And you cover me with your quilted dresses
Pearls gently falling around
I awake
Like a bird above the mountains
The streets are far behind me
I float with your scent left on my pajamas
On my bed, my bed...