Biography:

Actress and singer Denise Assunção was born on December 5, 1956 in Tietê, a municipality in the state of São Paulo. Her family is made up of great artists, including her brother Itamar Assumpção, who was the greatest symbol of the São Paulo avant-garde in the 1980s and one of the first big names in Brazilian independent music. His nieces Serena and Anelis Assumpção are also successful singers on the alternative music circuit.

Serena, the eldest, passed away very early, at the age of 39 in 2016. Ascensão , her only studio album, was a resounding posthumous success filled with important participations such as Karina Buhr, Curumin, Kiko Dinucci, Tulipa Ruiz and Tetê Espíndola. The Itamar Assumpção Museum was launched virtually last year and there is a lot of talk about this very talented family among vinyl collectors, however, I feel that Itamar’s sister, the great Denise Assunção, ends up being left a little aside. Maybe because she dedicated herself
more to acting in theater and films, but nothing justifies such injustice.

A Maior Bandeira Brasileira is the singer’s only solo album, released by the record label Baratos Afins in 1990. An album that presents us with a lot of jazz and at the same time a Brazilian 80s aesthetic. A work that is nothing short of the albums that Itamar composed in the 1980s, when he was accompanied by the band Isca de Police in which Denise was a member. Intercontinental! It was Itamar’s only album produced by a major record label, Continental, and, on this album, Denise stars in “ Sexto Sentido ”, one of the most prominent tracks from this work, which also features partnerships with Tetê and Alzira Espíndola. A year after this participation she began recording A Maior Bandeira Brasileira , produced by Luis Calanca (creator of Baratos Afins), who worked on several independent albums at that time.

The opening track is “ Nosso Pai “, a beautiful poem that Denise wrote to her brother. “I wrote it in a notebook, without any pretense, and he read it and started crying. He liked it so much that he ended up recording it”, reveals the singer. It is the only song on the album in which she is credited as a composer and has an absurd opening. A beautiful business card, showing Denise’s powerful vocal style
. “ Pulsars e Quasars ”, written by Jards Macalé and Capinan, was recorded by Gal Costa and is the exception for being the only one in which it was not written by his brother and partners, a much less psychedelic cover than the original and no less Fantastic.

Another cover is “ Baby ”, recorded by Itamar on the LP Beleléu, Leléu, Eu , in 1980. It is a re-recording in which she did not try to imitate the original in any way, leaving it completely with its originality, transforming it into another song. The Greatest Brazilian Flag is available on streaming platforms for those who prefer the digital version. For physical media collectors, the album was only released on LP in 1990 and has not even been reissued on CD. The Baratos Afins online store still has period copies for sale. Buy at the link:

Credits: