Introduced to singing by her military-musician father, Alcione Nazareth was part of a group of polished samba vocalists who took this working-class sound uptown. Beginning with the percussive samba de morro dominating her 1975 debut A Voz do Samba, the prolific artist known as "A Marrom" (the brown one) developed an increasingly orchestrated style that included tinges of jazz, R&B and salsa. Which isn't surprising, considering how much her husky alto voice resembles that of salsa star Celia Cruz—with a little Ella Fitzgerald thrown in.