Once Again, who is "Tuca"?

[clan...@my-deja.com]

I posted a message earlier this week about this same question, "A
Certain Mr. Tuca," but no responses, so I'm going to be more clear in
posting in one last attempt.

Who is Tuca, aside from a really mesmerizing guitarist that's played
with Nara Leao (Dez Anos Depois), Francoise Hardy (La Question) and
doubtless others?

Is this the same Tuca in the large group photo of Bossa Nova and MPB
stars that's published in the lumiar BN songbook?

I would appreciate any help you can offer,

Obrigado,

Allen

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

[Kimson Plaut]

Allen,
FYI, "Tuca" is a common Brazilian nickname, for women as well as men. just
because you see a listing for Tuca, doesn't mean that it is the same person.

- kimson

[braz...@my-deja.com]

Could it be "Juca" and not "Tuca"? Juca Moraes was a somewhat irreverent
composer and performer of bossa nova in the 60's and 70's. His most
well-known composition was a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Juscelino
Kubitschek and a spoof of how prevalent the term "bossa nova" had become
as a way of describing anything new and different in Brazil in the 60's,
called "Presidente Bossa Nova."

Nah, that's probably not who you're talking about (I don't think his
guitar skills were particularly noteworthy), but I thought I'd bring him
up anyway. Has anyone else ever heard of him? Or whatever happened to
him?

- Dennis Miller

In article <8bd0qm$h7r$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,

[braz...@my-deja.com]

Oops! I meant Juca Chaves! (Know the old expression "If memory serves"?
Mine often doesn't...)

Sorry, Juca, wherever you are...

In article <8bdk8a$72k$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,

[Egídio Leitão]

clan...@my-deja.com wrote:

> Who is Tuca, aside from a really mesmerizing guitarist that's played
> with Nara Leao (Dez Anos Depois), Francoise Hardy (La Question) and
> doubtless others?

Allen,

the one Tuca that comes to mind for me is (was?) a singer in the 70's.
She was a big woman that sang MPB back then. I used to see her on TV
shows, but I know absolutely nothing about her.

--
Egídio

[bras...@my-deja.com]

In article <8bdkut$7r2$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>,

braz...@my-deja.com wrote:
> Oops! I meant Juca Chaves! (Know the old expression "If memory
serves"?
> Mine often doesn't...)
>
> Sorry, Juca, wherever you are...
>

> Juca Chaves made a lot of money on his few songs and many solo whows.
He married Ana Maria, his former girl friend for whom he wrote one of
his best songs and then built literally a small castle on a beach in
Bahia, where they lived most of the time, and used to come to SP and
Rio once a year for 2-3 week solo shows in which he used to tell more
jokes than sing or play guitar.

In the mid-90's, though, he moved back to SP and opened a fancy
restaurant-bar (Juca's) downtown, and was apparently doing very well at
the time. I think he is a better comedian than a singer -- and a fair
guitar player. But he can be very funny and has the most famous nose in
Brazil.

Carlos

[clan...@my-deja.com]

Thanks Kimson for the hint about the nickname. Something like that
occurred to me and I thought maybe "Tuca" was a guitarist's nickname,
from "toca." Anyway, I'm not giving up so easily, becuase I have a
suspiscion that the guy (definitely male) that I'm thinking of was
someone somewhat prominent, but it's very possible that he never made
any solo recordings. These are the various hints along the trail and
while some might say that its a bunch of differnt people with the same
name, to me the chain of clues suggests the same person.

Guitar player, possibly some precussion

Played on two very excellent, thematically similar albums, both recorded
in France around the same time (1971-72):

Nara Leao's "Dez Anos Depois"
and
Francoise Hardy's "La Question"

I'm not musically trained and don't know how to describe the albums very
well, but here it goes: they both rely heavily on acoustic guitar, with
more of a tendency towards hand-precussion (bongos, congas, etc) as
opposed to a drum kit. The arrangements (which Tuca did on Hardy's
album along with artictic direction and co-wroting credits on all but
two songs) are of a baroque variety. That make any sense? I'm
convinced this Tuca did both these albums.

In a group picture that must have been taken in the mid-to-late 1960s
there is a "Tuca" who looks somewhat chubby and very young standing next
to Luiz Bonfa. The picture is in the Lumiar Bossa Nova Songbook.

Also, Charles Perrone's book "Masters of Contemporary Brazilian Song"
references a Tuca that either performed or composed (I had to return it
to the library) a song that won some high honors at one of the first
couple/few song festivals. His name was used in association or in the
same paragraph as the likes of Geraldo Vandre, Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque
and other post-bossa bards. In the picture he was standing not too far
from Chico.

So I dare to suggest that this is all one person, but If it is not then
I think that there are two people, one that performed on Nara and
Francoise's albums, and the other, the one in the picture and taking
honors at the festival.

allmusic.com says:

Tuca

Worked With: Maria Helena Lincoln Olivetti Gilberto Gil

1979 Gil, Gilberto Realce Fender Rhodes
1996 Red Hot + Rio Red Hot + Rio Cuica
Alcione Claridade Tambourine, Caixa, Agogo,
Cuica, Tamborim

Could it all be the same mysterious person? Not that's its very
important or consequential either way. Just curious . . .

Thanks for your help and patience,

Allen

[Bdo]

> the one Tuca that comes to mind for me is (was?) a singer in the 70's.
> She was a big woman that sang MPB back then. I used to see her on TV
> shows, but I know absolutely nothing about her.

You right Egidio
Tuca was from Sao Paulo
she played a real nice nylon guitar
and was a comediant too !
She was really very simpatic and funny !!

She died about 20 or more years ago
she was really very fat
and had troubles with that
She
lived in France and England for sometime
and record instrumental guitar for the french bossa-nova....
for example.....Philipe Nicaud (circa 1968)

She worked for TV Exelsior(SP) about two years
played and record with a lot of bossa-nova people

Tuca was a woman
was kind of session musician......
most of anything she had a very positive personal vibration
and ......She was FAT !!!

SBT TV or Gazeta TV have
litlle video tapes of her
===================

sorry my english !

Egídio Leitão <egi...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu> escreveu nas notícias de
mensagem:38DA9BB0...@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu...

[PierreVC]

Yes Bdo that is definitly the one Allen is searching for. I know her work on
Francoise Hardy 'La question'.
They where very good friend. You can see both of them on the back cover of
that mythical record 'La question' 71. There is 2 pictures of them laughing
and fancing together, Tuca embracing Hardy. She looks rather masculine in
fact and that may explain the confusion of gender of Allen.
I heard Hardy explaining she died.
I am glad to know more about her.

[clan...@my-deja.com]

Thanks "PierreVC" for your confirmation about the Francoise Hardy album
and I know we're getting off track as this is a "brazilian" chat, so can
anyone confirm that this WOMAN (at least we're sure about the gender)
worked on Nara's "Dez Anos Depois" album?

Thanks everyone for the help.