Carmen Miranda
One of the earliest and greatest samba stars, Carmen
Miranda (1909-1955) left Brazil for Hollywood in the
1930s, and became famous for her movie cameos as "the
lady with the fruit bowl on her head." More than any
other artist, Miranda introduced Brazilian music to
North Americans. After achieving great fame in Brazil,
in the 1930s, she came to Hollywood along with her
band (which was led by the great arranger, Aloysio
Oliveira, who later became head of A&R for the
Odeon-Brasil record label)... Although her image
became stereotyped and was often cariacatured (think
of all those Looney Toons shorts from the '40s...)
Carmen Miranda was in fact a kickass musician.
Interstate Music has recently released two fabuloso
CDs worth of her early samba music from the 1930s and
1940s -- both are highly recommended.