Brazilian band Coisa Linda will ignite the Brisbane Fringe Festival with a night of jazz, samba and bossa nova celebrating the legendary Brazilian artist, Elis Regina.
Set to take place at the Brisbane Jazz Club Coisa Linda singer, Lucia Medeiros, is sure the event with make people feel like dancing. “With Brazilians that’s the most common thing to happen anyway. We might start the show sitting down, but towards the end people might end up dancing.
“We've never done a tribute show before, but we already had a lot of songs from Elis Regina in our repertoire. And this year she would be turning 70-years old if she was alive, so I thought that was a good excuse to have a tribute show to someone that put out such great music,” Lucia says.
Because it's a Elis Regina tribute night, Coisa Linda want those who already know her to enjoy listening to her songs again, and hopefully feel a few of the same emotions as they did when listening to the original version.
For those unfamiliar with Elis Regina, the band hope the audience will enjoy the passion and music, while at the simultaneously sparking their curiosity about an artist regarded as the greatest Brazilian singer of all time.Elis Regina recorded 28 albums during her 18 years in the music industry, before tragically passing away at 36.
“She was a really excellent singer, great artist and very powerful. Yes, she was loud, but she was powerful emotionally as well. She would connect amazingly to the songs.” enthuses Lucia.
“She was very versatile, the repertoire she chose to work with was really good; she had such a talent to select songs. She died in the early '80s, and back then she brought to fame many composers who were unknown in Brazil, she would go for unknown composers.
“She had a reputation for being really short fused, and had a very explosive personality, which also showed when she was performing. She was one of the most popular singers, very successful.”
For the Brisbane Fringe Festival show, Lucia will be joined by Louise Denson on piano and Jason Bell on drums.
After the Fringe, the band's main focus will be to finalise their second album, which they recorded last year. “Because it’s a self-founded album, and we’ve already put in a lot from our own pockets, so now we’re willing to make a crowdfunding campaign to fund and raise money for artwork, pictures, pressing the CD and all of that. So that’s our next step, to focus on finishing the album,” Lucia says.
Coisa Linda's 'Elis Forever' Brisbane Fringe Festival show takes place at the Brisbane Jazz Club 26 August.
