For scrolling video of the score: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=sWFAlDxmElo

For live video at Montreux 79 :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMn0CroAUvU

For scrolling video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ms3TtsJiRY

Live video at Montreux 79: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVsR-ES6Sq8

TRANSLATION OF WHAT ELIS SAID ABOUT ABOUT HER PERFORMANCE WITH HERMETO AT
MONTREUX 79 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE8dEBBHnLA

Nelson Motta: Was it planned the gig with Hermeto?

Elis: No it was pure chance.

NM: It was pure jazz then?

Elis: Yes, pure jazz, complete and absolute... Suddenly André [André Midani from Warner]
pushed Hermeto, and said let's go let's play, and I said "what?" He said, sit down and play...

NM: How was it?, did you ask him about the key?, he likes to play free...

Elis: No, I said to him, man, I am contralto... He said, OK so you get from this to that
extension. I said no, man, not B; C is enough and my throat is tired. He said OK. And then
after doing the Luiz Gonzaga's songs, we did a couple by the godfather Antonio Carlos
Jobim, and it was great. But you know what is great?; something good happened with
Hermeto and me, that thing that is stronger... excuse us, someone passed in front, friend
from the audience, excuse us we are at a party... something nice happened that was like
this: I found out that neither me or him are colonized, our heads are not, we have a fierce
pride of being Brazilian, we are not ashamed of playing samba, of playing triangulo,
pandeiro, damn. We are not ashamed of the Brazuca, it is the best thing that could have
happened, and the opposition will excuse me. And why we need to talk about jazz when, in
a country like this, we have on this Earth, this albino, crossed-eyed, who must have terrible
problems, able to do that... I mean, what are we to do, to sit down and cry...

Look at his face, what a wonder, he is the most beautiful thing, how to make him
understand that he is the most beautiful thing. That is it, is God who is playing... He is a God
born in the Alagoas. Look Hermeto, wow...

HERMETO’S REACTION TO WHAT ELIS SAID ABOVE (AFTER HE WAS SHOWN THE VIDEO CLIP
OF HER COMMENTS ON PEDRO BIAL’S TV SHOW): https://globoplay.globo.com/v/7118241/

"You surprised me. I was choked-up and now I’m even more so, seeing this thing with Elis
Regina. I’d like to say to the public something beautiful. It was a gift from God. I felt closely
the sincerity of this musical singer. A singer that I can call a universal singer. Long live the
eternal genius of Elis Regina."
 The "Duel" between Elis and Hermeto at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1979 (by Nelson Motta)

http://abre-surdo.blogspot.com/2005/06/o-duelo-entre-elis-e-hermeto-no.html

The great star of “Noite Brasileira” was Elis Regina, who after 15 years had left Polygram to sign
with her old friend André Midani at Warner. The recording of a live album in Montreux was an
important part of the new contract, to give a boost to her international career. With César Camargo
Mariano (pianist, arranger and Elis’s husband) and a small group of high level musicians, Elis put on
a show with her big hits.

All the tickets for the old Casino de Montreux had been sold out for days and Hermeto Pascoal,
coming from recordings with Miles Davis, and idolized in the jazz media, would make the first part
of the “Brazilian Night”.

After the rehearsal, surprised by the crowd that wanted to see the show and had no tickets, festival
director Claude Nobs put pressure on his old friend André who convinced Elis to do an extra
matinee at three in the afternoon on the day of the show. In the overcrowded matinee, Elis rocked.
She sang a high-level repertoire with safety, technique and discreet emotion. She did the show as if
it were a dress rehearsal. Like preparing for the big night.

On the night of the opening show, Hermeto Pascoal and his musicians brought the house down.
They were given a standing applause for 15 minutes, with the audience shouting and demanding
more.
After a half-hour break, with a blue orchid in her hair, like Billie Holiday, Elis stepped onto the stage
at the Casino in Montreux. With a long dress and a hairstyle that made her older, Elis looked nervous
and tense, tired and intimidated, when she started singing. “I didn't sing badly, I sang with precision
and caution, without trying any effect” explained Elis. In the aisle, André panicked as he thought Elis
was going to faint. He came onto the stage with a glass of water which she drank immediately. The
show continued.

On stage, Elis suffered intensely, as if she were not doing what she liked most in life, but fulfilling a
painful duty. The show ended with a lot of applause but much less intense than Hermeto's. Elis was
exhausted and quickly left the stage.

In the middle of the applause, Claude called back Hermeto, who had watched Elis's entire show from
the aisle.

Received with a spectacular ovation, the albino wizard went victoriously to the piano, while by
surprise, Claude called Elis Regina back! Always highly competitive, Elis knew that she had lost the
night to Hermeto. Frustrated and furious, she entered the stage stomping hard and smiling tensely
at the audience.

Total silence, piano and voice. Hermeto starts to play “Corcovado” and when Elis starts to sing, the
harmonies start to transform, surprising dissonances start to emerge from the piano. It is more and
more difficult for Elis - or for any singer in the world - to stay within the same key , so many and so
sophisticated are the transformations that Hermeto imposes, making the old classic almost
unrecognizable, genius-level unrecognizable. And Elis there, responded to all the wizard's
unpredictability, with a precision that amazed him and made him change the course of an
unrehearsed song even more.
On the tightrope and without a net, Elis sang like a dancer, like a warrior, like a musician. Hermeto's
red eyes widened behind his glasses. Elis grew with every note, with every sentence of her
improvisations and scats, with every measure of her duel with Hermeto. They were deliriously
applauded.

When Hermeto started playing “The Girl from Ipanema” (which Elis hated and swore she would
never sing in her life) she hit the piano in time with the rhythm. But she soon composed herself and
sang it with vigor, as if it were the last song of her life; she made the song her own from the inside
out …… imitating a cute little girl, laughing and mocking, provoking Hermeto, and flew with him in
front of the electrified audience.

With the audience on their feet, Elis and Hermeto performed “Asa Branca” as the final piece, Luís
Gonçaga's baião, in a free-jazz and atonal style, never dreamed-of harmonies intersecting with Elis'
audacious phrasing, sudden changes of rhythm and tempo, proposals and answers, crossed shots,
musical art of the highest level led by two virtuosos.
Beside me, my old friend Nesuhi Ertgun, an experienced jazz critic, who followed the career of Miles
Davis and other geniuses, said that he had rarely witnessed a duet so emotional, so technical, so
audacious. He left the euphoric Casino, inviting me to celebrate a dinner with André and Elis.
Complimented by Nesuhi, Elis was reticent, she was almost silent, but said to André, threateningly:
"This album will not come out, will it?"

Epilogue

Elis knew that the live album in Montreux could boost her international career, but would not be
released. That’s because she didn't want it to, and because apart from the numbers with Hermeto,
she thought the rest wasn't worth it, she thought she hadn't sung well. Back in Brazil, she demanded
from André an oath that he would never release that recording, never, even after she died. Elis died
shortly afterwards at the age of 36 and André did not think about it any more. Until one afternoon,
two years later, André thought of Elis and he felt a shiver as he remembered her afternoon show in
Montreux; the extra show that ended up exhausting her and damaging her nightly performance…..
and that it had also been recorded!

André ordered the tapes and alone in his office he listened and cried and listened and cried,
remembered everything and decided, out of love and admiration (and justice) to go against the oath
to Elis's request, made in the heat of emotion and disappointment of the fateful night in Montreux.
And found that yes, her performance with Hermeto was really extraordinary, and even she, even
furious (with herself) after the show, had recognized that fact. André selected five tracks from the
show in the afternoon and joined them to the three with Hermeto in an LP released discreetly and
without major fanfare like “Elis em Montreux”. A historical record.
https://estrogonoffeonada.tumblr.com/post/70524556733/disco-pindorama-10-elis-regina-
montreux-jazz

The two were scheduled for the night of July 20, 1979. Hermeto would open and Elis would
close. While Hermeto was almost unknown to the European public, Elis was already identified by
some as the new Ella Fitzgerald. The search for tickets was monstrous and soon there was none
left. Nobs then suggested (as an additional session), a matinee at three in the afternoon. This
first show happened and it was a huge success, a great rehearsal for the long-awaited
consecration at night.
Hermeto opened the main session, repeated the afternoon exhibition and made the audience
delirious. Half an hour apart, Elis entered the stage at ten at night. She looked nervous and wore
a dress that aged her. She started to sweat a lot and after a short while she became very pale.
She looked like she was going to pass out. She drank some water and gradually became more
comfortable. It ended up being extremely technical, very concentrated, without many flourishes.
It was enough to delight the foreign audience: at the end of many requests for an encore, Elis
received a standing ovation of 11 minutes!

She was just leaving the stage when Claude Nobs called her back, together with Hermeto, to
perform another song. The wizard sat at the piano and started improvising “Corcovado”. He was
transforming the harmony, playing dissonant chords and Elis followed him singing. It was almost
a duel. One proposed an improbable path and the other followed. When it was over, Hermeto
decided to play “Girl from Ipanema”, the song that Elis Regina swore she would never sing. This
time there was no escape, but she didn't let the issue drop; she sang the part in English like a
parody of an American cool jazz singer. In the end, there was still time for a sensational version
of “Asa Branca”, in a way Gonzaga would never have dreamed of.

After the show, André Midani, president of WEA, Elis' label, asked the singer why she had been
nervous, since she was normally so sure of herself. She answered:

“When I stepped on the stage, I remembered that Ella Fitzgerald had stepped on the same floor
two days before, I remembered that I was the daughter of a washerwoman ... I was upset and
wanted to die!”

And she made him promise that he would never release the record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewIZz9vTxj4 Elis & Hermeto - Garota de Ipanema

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3y86qp Elis & Hermeto - Asa Branca

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Kv1TpZkTQ Elis & Hermeto – Corcovada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE8dEBBHnLA Elis speaks about playing with Hermeto at
Montreux. “.....is God who is playing... He is a God born in the Alagoas”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PXDamS1g0g&t=6s Highlights of Elis’s show with her own

band at Montreux, 20th July 1979 (César Camargo Mariano, Hélio Delmiro, Luizão Maia, Paulinho
Braga, Chico Batera) Samba Dobrado, Na Baixa do Sapateiro, Rebento, Aguas de Marco, Madalena,
Agora Ta, Atras da Porta, Medley: a) Ponta de Areia b) Fé Cega, Faca Amolada c) Maria Maria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd58ya3tXq8&list=PL3ciPmb57IviwMtTVkk70f6_8dgmw3PiC
Caidentro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYdmW6aFlpk&feature=emb_logo Corrida da Jangada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB1ZZCFNmOg Cobra Criada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AkZ7l1E0js&feature=emb_logo Upa Neguinho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nO2V7J-VZDs Mancada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iTCYEocnUI&list=PL3ciPmb57IviwMtTVkk70f6_8dgm
w3PiC&index=10 Onze Fitas

https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/caderno-g/duelos-de-titas-em-montreux-
bahsq1pi6qivzvgwxnbfij2vi/ by Roberto Muggiati (edited)

On Friday, July 20, 1979, Nuit Brésilienne was on stage at the Casino de Montreux. It was
not just another "Brazilian Night" of the famous Swiss jazz festival, but a special gala night
that brought together, in different shows, Elis Regina and Hermeto Pascoal.

The expectation and the rush for tickets to Elis and Hermeto's concerts was so great that
exceptionally, the event's organization programmed a matinee. In this one, as in the
evening show, Elis opened for Hermeto, without any major problems. She was fully aware
that this was a festival of improvised instrumental music and even the greatest diva in Brazil
could not match the phenominon of Hermeto, with one of his best bands of all time: Cacau
and Nivaldo Ornelas (saxophones), Jovino (keyboards), Itiberê (bass), Nenê (drums),
Pernambuco (percussion), Zabelê (vocals) and the “Bruxo” - one of the greatest multi-
instrumentalists on the planet - unfolding on winds, keyboards, vocals and percussions.
Hermeto had dazzled the US ten years earlier when recording with Miles Davis. On his first
visit to Europe, he was greeted, on the eve of his presentation, with an interesting mention
in the prestigious International Herald Tribune, written by Michael Zwerin, a critic and
former trombonist who was part of Miles Davis' pioneer Tuba Band.

Zwerin wrote: "After João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Airto Moreira and Egberto
Gismonti, meet Hermeto Pascoal, perhaps the most brilliant of all these Brazilians. Who is
this mysterious genius from a remote corner of Brazil? One thing is certain: we’ll hear more
about him". Prophetic words.

After Hermeto's second show, Elis entered the stage for a duo with the Bruxo, in a light
floral print dress. It was perhaps one of the most important quarter of an hour in MPB
history: "Asa Branca", "Corcovado" and as the grand finale, a "Girl from Ipanema" full of
poison, with a pianist and singer exchanging brilliant improvisations. Just check it out on
YouTube: no hostility between the two, on the contrary. Elis stroking Hermeto's white and
lion-like mane, smiling at him, the two hugging each other, physically and musically.

Listening now to the albums of Hermeto and Elis in Montreux, the memory of 1979 comes
back to me with brutal force in my head (and heart). I remember the Rio-Geneva flight
aboard a Jumbo with Hermeto and his band, the crystalline view of the Basque coast, where
it makes a right angle between Spain and France, I seemed to be flying over a map.
Hermeto must have felt the same way. Eight years later, on the album “Só não Toca Quem
não Quer”, he dedicated a track to me, appropriately titled "Viagem" (Voyage).

Julio Maria em Elis Regina: Nada Será Como Antes [biografia].

"Duet or duel? Improvisation or dispute? The first song they agreed to do there, at the time
was 'Corcovado'. Elis heard the chaotic introduction once, twice and felt the signal from the
wizard, but decided to wait for the dust from the dissonances to settle down for more
security. When she found the key (which was not easy with Hermeto), she firmly entered
with 'Um cantinho um violão, esse amor uma canção”……Hermeto did not improvise notes
on defined harmonic fields, as jazz players do, but he altered the harmony by changing the
chords as if they were pieces of a game without rules. In that way, he alternated between
the total deconstruction of the harmonic sequences and moments of calm for recognizable
parts of the melody. That was until the earthquake returned. When Elis felt how difficult it
was singing for Hermeto, she closed her eyes and continued singing.

“Corcovado” was performed as two versions at the same time. Without faltering, Elis
turned the game around and started turning the challenge into fun. The two were already
smiling when Hermeto made room for himself to do a solo in the middle of the song and
the tension returned. The problem was not the wizard's impromptu input, but his output.
Elis could not falter, so as soon as the piano reopened the portal she would sing again, but it
was difficult to know what was going on in Hermeto's head. Wide-eyed, Elis searched for
the key and didn't find it, until she noticed two familiar notes and grabbed them by the tail.
But here she did it differently, playing Billie Holiday up and down the melody and,
letting go of her own preconceptions, she threw herself into a sweeping re-interpretation.
The wizard and the sorceress were beginning to make the audience levitate.
At the end of the performance, Elis joked as if she were punching Hermeto and the two
hugged each other. But the audience wanted more and Hermeto in an unexpected gesture,
brought Elis back to the microphone and resumed his place at the keyboard. Using the
instrument percussively, he signaled the beginning for 'Garota de Ipanema' in a low key,
ready to do the same juggling, but this time he found a singer who was learning fast. Elis
and Hermeto demolished and rebuilt the song that the world sang along to even without
speaking Portuguese. Curiously this was a song which Elis had promised herself never to
sing. The two said goodbye again and left the stage. But the public wanted more.

It would be the third and final round. Hermeto started playing 'Asa Branca' on piano,
creating a rampant tension with an energetic rhythm that would soon blossom into a
beautiful melody. Upon hearing the word 'heart', Hermeto let go of everything, took a deep
breath and created a ballet-waltz improvisation that caught Elis by surprise. Upon hearing
that, she screamed and slapped hard on the top of the electric piano, making it vibrate for
Hermeto and Luiz Gonzaga. Their musical hug was so strong and long that when the last
chord sounded, Elis smiled with emotion and said curse words of happiness in the pianist's
ears. 'You son of a bitch! It was great! '

Years later, Hermeto would respond to those who accused him of trying to upstage Elis in
the performance. 'If it is improvisation, the musician can never be sure. If you're sure, it's
superficial. If it were with another, I would never do what I did. I only went that way
because I was with Elis Regina'.
Elis and Hermeto. Hermeto’s Version
http://blogs.jornaldaparaiba.com.br/silvioosias/2016/06/22/elis-e-hermeto-versao-dele/

Hermeto Pascoal (80 years old on Wednesday, 22) and Elis Regina were the attractions of
the Brazilian night of the 1979 Montreux Festival. Hermeto played a devastating show. Elis
though was not satisfied with her performance, so much so that she died (aged just 36)
without allowing Warner to release the album of it.

The time came when Hermeto accompanied Elis on some numbers. Legend has it that he
wanted to disrupt things, using chords that hindered vocal performance. In 2010, when
interviewing Hermeto, I asked him to tell the story.

Here’s what he said to me:

“Elis was not in a very cool phase, personally. We didn't know that we were going to play
together. She opened, and I closed. When my show was over, Elis came in, and we, hand in
hand, thanked the audience. We went out, I went back and did an improv number. Elis
came on stage again, and we performed. Everything improvised. Some thought that I
wanted to disrupt things. On the contrary. It was something called improvisation and
creation together. When we left, she said some curse words, pointed at César Camargo
Mariano and said: “look at Caesar, this is how I like it!”.
https://www.informacaomusical.com/entrevista-hermeto-pascoal

Rodrigo Chenta - According to Elis, in an interview

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRsk-WaZZxU ), you didn't even know that you would
play together, nothing was agreed and everything came naturally. It is much talked about in
the musical world, that one "provoked" the other at that moment. Talk about it.

Hermeto - Actually, I was invited to end the Festival with my group, and Elis opened the
night with her set. At the end of my show, they asked us to say goodbye together and
switched on the instruments so we could play. So, we finished improvising on the songs that
Elis chose at the time (Girl from Ipanema, Corcovado and Asa Branca). It was the only time
we played together. There was no provocation. What happened was a lot of sound! So
much so that Elis ends up singing: "Keep all my heart with you".

https://www.revistacontinente.com.br/edicoes/203/-a-minha-religiao-e-a-musica-

CONTINENTE Queria trazer à tona um episódio extraordinário que aconteceu no Festival de

Montreux de 1979, que foi a apresentação entre você e Elis Regina. Já se referiram a esse
encontro como um duelo. Foi um duelo ou foi um dueto?

HERMETO PASCOAL Dueto. Claro. Gente, a vida, quando você nasce, já é um duelo.
Primeiro, não foi marcado nenhum comigo e Elis Regina.

CONTINENTE Foi de última hora?

HERMETO PASCOAL Foi lá na última hora. A Elis Regina era uma artista contratada da
Globo. O Hermeto não era artista contratado de lugar nenhum. Era, sim, só da gravadora
Warner, minha gravadora na época. O que aconteceu, quando houve esse convite, foi um
interesse da gravadora, já que a Elis tinha o patrocínio dela, que era a própria Globo. E a
minha gravadora, como não tinha, foi a outros canais de televisão pra ver se conseguia uma
ajuda. Nenhum canal quis patrocinar a gente. Então, não iríamos deixá-los gravarem sem
pagar. Mas, o que acontece é que o meu show foi rolando. A Elis Regina já tinha feito o
dela. Quando terminou, o público não parava de aplaudir. Aí a imprensa, aquela lá da dona
Globo, tentou esconder. Como a Elis era a artista deles, né?, tentaram esconder. Nem
informaram. Estou dizendo só a verdade. A plateia não parava de aplaudir. Voltei não sei
quantas vezes. Quando finalmente saio, a Elis disse “E aí, bicho, o que é que vamos fazer?”,
eu respondi, “Hein? O quê?”, porque eu tava com aquele pensamento na cabeça sobre a
cobertura da televisão. Só que eu já sabia, já tinham me dado o toque, que o Fantástico
estava no ar no Brasil e que, em respeito à maravilhosa Elis Regina, eu também nunca tinha
feito nada com ela, aceitei. Porque, porra... Era aquela vontade que eu tinha de fazer um
som com a Elis Regina, que eu não tinha nem adjetivo pra dizer o valor dela como cantora.
Aí eu estava com o meu meio litro de uísque de lado, ela estava com o dela quase cheio.
Batemos nossos copos, tomamos nosso uísque que pudemos tomar pra voar, aí, quando eu
vou entrando no palco, ela falou “E aí, bicho, vamos tocar o quê?”.

Eu digo, “Olha, o que vier na sua mente, eu com prazer toco”. Então, só pra responder a
essa pergunta, que eu demorei um ano pra responder, mas... Eu digo assim pra você, o que
aconteceu ali foi, primeiro, dádiva, coisa divina, que era como uma coisa que Deus já sabia
que ia acontecer com ela, e aí, que acontece? Quando a gente começou o som, eu senti
nela um..., além da cantora, que o cuidado que a gente tem que ter com os cantores é
justamente que eles, a maioria, aprendem as músicas pelo disco, ou então com o
compositor mostrando. E eles gravam e decoram aquilo. E se você mudar a harmonia, a
concepção daquilo, eles geralmente erram. Com algumas exceções, como uma Alaíde Costa,
uma Joyce, eu não vou dizer o nome, senão vou esquecer o nome de alguém... Então, as
cantoras daquela época tinham essa facilidade, mas tinham umas que você dava um tom e
elas erravam o tema. Eu não tinha essas ideias com Elis não, que eu já achava ela a maior
cantora do momento no Brasil. Mesmo assim, fui com muito cuidado, pra não atrapalhá-la.
Mas ela aí me deu uns caminhos na hora de tocar. Ela também dá uma paradinha, fica me
escutando, curtindo o arranjo e esperando as minhas resoluções, o que não é comum num
cantor popular. Só que a música instrumental é um rótulo malfeito que fizeram.... Música
instrumental, só o nome do instrumento, só, que a música não tem classificação, a música é
tudo. A música que não tem nenhuma letra é a que podemos considerar menos
instrumental.

CONTINENTE Explica isso.

HERMETO PASCOAL Porque dá mais chance de você escutar e criar sua própria letra. Eu
faço isso, escolho uma pessoa no auditório que queira ir ao palco e digo “Vou tocar uma
música aqui de improviso e você pensa o que quiser e vai escrevendo tudo o que vier na
cabeça sobre essa música. Aí, depois vem pra cá e lê para o público. E, quando ler, vou
acompanhar”. Se você visse o sucesso que está isso aí… Só que, como eu não gosto de
repetir, não tenho paciência de fazer sempre. Então, pra resumir, só queria pegar o fiozinho
da meada que…

CONTINENTE O que eu tinha perguntado era se tinha sido um duelo ou dueto.

HERMETO PASCOAL Está todo mundo acostumado com a mesmice dos acompanhadores. E
eu não. Não é que eu queira mostrar que sou o melhor. Não é isso. Não é porque quero ser
diferente, nada. É porque tenho o meu jeito de sentir. Deus não fez nada igual no mundo.
Por que eu ia ser igual? Por intervenção divina, eu não enxergo bem, mas meu pai sempre
falou “Meu filho, a sua vista não é boa de longe, mas pra mulher você sempre tem uma
vista melhor”. Campeã, quando eu olhava pra Elis, senti que ela tinha vontade de voar, da
emoção! Então, o que aconteceu, que ela sentiu o que eu sinto, nós dois fizemos um
trabalho, na hora, juntos. Ela saiu do palco voando. Aí chegou pertinho do César Camargo
Mariano e disse assim, mas com respeito, “Olha, bicho, é assim que eu gosto de cantar”,
como quem diz “Você, que está me acompanhando, pode criar mais”. Era uma deusa que
voltou pro céu.
CONTINENTE Nesse show de Montreux, antes de ela se apresentar, fala-se que estava muito
nervosa. Você tem esse problema de nervosismo com show?

HERMETO PASCOAL O que tenho é a ansiedade de voltar, rápido, a tocar. Tenho é muita
vontade de tocar, gana. Sou um cara assim: se tenho qualquer problema na minha vida, eu
não ponho aquele nome chamado “tristeza”. Você acaba na hora a tristeza com raiva! Puto
da vida, e pronto. Você fica com raiva em vez de se entregar, porque aí você está sendo pior
do que a tristeza. No meu caso com a Elis, ela estava nervosa porque o nervoso dela era,
justamente, doida pra entrar! Se a Elis tivesse que ficar aqui, ela tinha ficado. É porque não
era pra ficar mesmo, mas se ela ficasse, nós íamos dar trabalho aí fazendo umas coisas. Mas
a gente acaba fazendo no plano espiritual. Eu acredito muito nisso. Não sou religioso. Se eu
fosse, talvez não tivesse o meu sentido tão aguçado. Não estou criticando os religiosos. É
que não tenho tempo pra religião, porque a minha religião é o que eu sou, um músico. Sou
100% músico. A minha religião é a música e através dela eu amo a todos.
 Snaphots taken from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3y86qp

https://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/culture/d%C3%A9c%C3%A8s-de-claude-nobs_-ce-qui-m-
int%C3%A9resse--c-est-de-rendre-les-artistes-heureux-/34705082 (From an interview with Claude
Nobs, Montreux Jazz Festival Director)

“Elis Regina, like Tom Jobim and Hermeto Pascoal, came to Montreux at the invitation of
André Midani, President of WEA (Warner Elektra Atlantic) Brazil. He was the first to bring
Brazilian musicians to Europe. At the end of Elis's famous concert at the Casino, I suggested
that Hermeto continue to play with her. “Are you crazy?” André replied. Hermeto cannot
accompany Elis Regina! ”. So, I proposed it to Hermeto and Elis. They were fascinated and
decided to record a few songs together for this historic album. Usually this kind of madness
works well for me, because I'm like a child, not afraid to ask”.
 Missing Elis (chatting at the bar in Montreux) by Roberto Muggiati
https://amajazz.com.br/2018/06/22/saudades-de-elis-conversando-no-bar-em-montreux/

Those were magical days, I remember every moment. As editor of Manchete magazine, I
finished another edition and went to Galeão Airport. I was going to cover the Brazilian Night
in Montreux at the invitation of WEA. At the check-in there was a monumental racket, due
of course to Hermeto Pascoal. José Neto, responsible for logistics, dispatched his famous
brother's percussion arsenal. From a wire stretched between two rough wooden posts hung
pots, casseroles, pans, especially “tuned” - as if the festival did not offer the most
sophisticated professional equipment ... I rehearsed a tentative conversation with the
Wizard; it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. (Eight years later, on the album “Só
não Toca Quem não Quer”, Hermeto dedicated the track “Viagem” to me).

On the first part of the journy, landing in Dakar (Senegalese heat is not a mere figure of
speech), I had a chat with saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, a very nice guy. Flying over the
Cantabrian Sea, between France and Spain, I talked to the band's vocalist, Zabelê, married
to the drummer, Nenê. On the Paris leg of the trip, the critic Armando Aflalo showed me his
story about Billie Holiday's death. I bought an International Herald Tribune in which the
critic Michael Zwerin extolled Hermeto's genius and trumpted fanfares about his
forthcoming European debut (Zwerin played trombone on the recordings of Miles Davis'
Tuba Band, precursor to Birth of the Cool).
After an hour on the road, among green mountains dotted with white sheep, I arrived at
the hotel in Montreux, threw my bags in the room and ran out to the Festival. Still with jet
lag from the 20-hour flight, I found myself suddenly in the whale's belly, leaning over the
stage where the Weather Report played Birdland - Wayne, Zawinul, Pastorius, the rest is
history.

As the Brazilian Night, on Friday, July 20, 1979, sold out, there was an extra show in the
afternoon. In both shows, Elis preceded Hermeto on stage, and not the other way around,
as many people wrote. I am sure of this because I wrote my report less than 72 hours later
in Manchete. Elis “opened” for Hermeto without any problems. There were no “diva”
shenanigans; after all, it was an essentially instrumental festival. Elis had signed to WEA
after 15 years at Polygram and knew that Montreux was a fabulous showcase. She did her
best, with a violet lamé blouse that showed her arms, a red flamenco dancer skirt, and a
lilac orchid in her hair, reminiscent of Billie Holiday. Her group was quite jazzy: her husband,
César Camargo Mariano, at the keyboards; Hélio Delmiro, guitar; Luizão Maia, bass;
Paulinho Braga, drums; Chico Batera, percussion. André Midani, president of WEA, gave his
impressions of that Brazilian Night in the book “Music, Idols and Power - From Vinyl to
Download (2008)”. According to him, Elis “was sweating a lot, she was pale and breathless,
as if carrying the world on her back”. Crawling across the back of the stage, Midani helped
Elis with a glass of water, which she “drank like a jet and returned to the microphone”.

When Hermeto's last show was over, Elis took the stage to sing with the wizard at the
piano. Asa Branca, Corcovado and Garota de Ipanema (check it out on YouTube) are
perhaps the 13 most intense minutes in MPB history. Elis traded her alluring costume for a
light dress with floral prints. According to some ill-informed people, Hermeto tried to
overthrow Elis. Nothing like that happened: his warped chords and delirious polyrhythms
only enhanced Elis' singing, the Queen of vocal artistry. She stroked Hermeto's white lion
mane several times, exchanged hugs and kisses and caresses without end, in physical and
spiritual communion.

Elis is reported to have said: “To think that Ella Fitzgerald stepped onto this very stage just a
week ago! I remembered that I am the daughter of a washer-women, I was upset, I wanted
to die! ”. Dissatisfied with her show, Elis made Midani swear that she would never release
those recordings. I was unaware of the swirl of ideas and emotions that Elis was going
through when I sat down with her for a tête-à-tête at the Bar des Musiciens, where César
played with the gringos. At the invitation of WEA producer Mazzola, I had this unique
opportunity, an informal conversation with Elis, drinking champagne; she was wearing the
same simple dress immortalized in the clips with Hermeto. We talked for hours and I gave
her a copy of my book “Rock - El Grito y el Mito”. At the time, with my Selmer tenor
saxophone, I was on the verge of throwing away 25 years of journalism. Stimulated by the
champagne bubbles, I poured all my existential doubts on Elis - a patient interlocutor. Eight
years younger than me, she seemed to have a Zen tranquility, totally at peace with life. The
next day, Saturday, I met Elis again for lunch at the home of Claude Nobs, organizer of the
Montreux Festival. In the summer sun, she was chatting in the garden with Al Jarreau: there
was a project to bring the two together on an album. Early Sunday, I saw Elis for the last
time on the flight from Geneva to Paris; from the front of the plane she said goodbye. At
Charles de Gaulle airport, our paths parted, she gradually disappeared into a huge glass
tunnel that led to the plane to Tokyo. Elis and Hermeto went to a festival in Japan, I went
back to Rio to tell the story of Montreux.

Two and a half years later - like all of Brazil - I was shocked by the news of her death, at the
age of 36. I saw her burial at the Morumbi Cemetery at home on TV, in Rio it was a São
Sebastião holiday, January 20. Elis, Elis, why did you leave us? I thought, remembering her
serene presence that night in Montreux. Life is strange….
__________________________________________________________________

To finish, check out these beautiful videos of Elis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiF8A80MdpA Cancao da America (Milton

Nascimento). Beautiful version mixed in with emotional footage of her funeral

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isqlhykeOw8 O Trem Azul (Lo Borges) - Elis Regina 81

version