Leny Andrade, the jazz singer described as “the Ella Fitzgerald of Brazil” by Tony Bennett, has died aged 80. She died on 24 July of Lewy body dementia, her carers told NPR.
Born in Rio de Janeiro in January 1943, Andrade became one of the most successful jazz singers in her country, and earned substantial fanbases in Europe and the US, where she later settled.
She studied classical piano as a child but as a teenager segued into performing bossa nova and samba-inflected jazz at Rio nightclubs, with her recording career beginning in 1961 with A Sensação. By blending the lilt of bossa nova with the more uptempo feel of American swing, sung with a richly resonant and emotional voice, Andrade distinguished herself from the rest of the bossa nova scene and began to find success across outh America.
She had a residency in Argentina, then settled in Mexico for almost seven years, where she met her US contemporaries Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan.
In the 1980s and 90s, her fame grew in the US, and she moved to New York in 1993 and became a staple in the city’s jazz clubs – Bennett and Liza Minnelli were among her fans there – and the country’s jazz festivals, including performances at the Hollywood Bowl and New York’s Lincoln Center in 1994. The 1990s were also her most prolific years of recording, with nine albums released that decade.
She retired from touring in 2018, but continued to record until recently, releasing the song Por Causa de Você earlier this year.
