From Northeastern Brazil, Vibrant Musical Ambassador

Elba Ramalhodidn’t waste time making her presence known at the Ford Amphitheatre on Sunday. The Brazilian diva, a major artist for more than two decades, surged past her musicians garbed in a wildly colorful cape, headdress, feathers, beads and tassels. Singing an introductory incantation, she immediately established her deep connection with the African-rooted music of northeast Brazil.

Then, removing the cape and the headdress, Ramalho emerged in a figure-hugging green and gold dress, blond hair flying, her legs moving with the sensual muscularity that has earned her the label “the Tina Turner of Brazil.” But the description, flattering though she finds it, only minimally describes Ramalho’s art, which brings a colorful array of elements to the focused dynamism of her onstage persona.

Although a substantial portion of her audience was familiar with her songs, for the non-Brazilian listeners her performance was a revealing insight into sounds and rhythms from beyond the familiar arena of samba and bossa nova. Brazil’s musical culture is enormously rich and diverse and Ramalho makes it clear that she intends to be an ambassador for the the regional culture that she knows best--the Northeast, with its maracatu, forro, frevo and baiao.

She did so superbly, singing numbers by Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, as well as material from “Solar,” a new 2-CD survey of her far-ranging music. Accompanied by an acoustic group tinged with the accordion-textured sounds heard in much of the Northeast, Ramalho was as enlightening as she was entertaining.

The veteran guitarist-singer Geraldo Azevedo also added his own illuminating view of the music of the Northeast, joining Ramalho (with guest artists Dori Caymmi and young Bahian singer Peri for a high voltage, collective climax.