Jazz Articles about Luciana Souza

Luciana Souza: Tide

by Ian Patterson
September 2, 2009

On Tide, Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza displays all the attributes that brought her the Jazz Journalists Association's female jazz vocalist of 2005 award. Her voice is never less than captivating at either end of a notable vocal range and holds the attractive mix of worldly maturity that comes with age, and a seductive suavness. Beautifully crafted songs with melodies which lull, embrace, and envelop the listener reveal a singer/songwriter at the top of her game.

Souza shares songwriting ...

Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters

by George Kanzler
March 6, 2008

The participation of such former and present Grammy nominees and winners as Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza and Leonard Cohen (reading “The Jungle Line" like a beat poet), as well as the iconic stature of Joni Mitchell herself, may have immeasurably helped in winning this CD the Grammy Album of the Year award. But that doesn't diminish the significance of it being the first jazz album to win the award in forty-three years. For make no ...

Luciana Souza: The New Bossa Nova

by AAJ Italy Staff
December 10, 2007

Luciana Souza è una cantante brasiliana con una voce molto raffinata che sa muovere in maniera convincente fra bossa nova, jazz e pop contemporaneo. Questo album dal titolo un po’ banale (probabilmente ammiccante a The New Standards di Herbie Hancock) la vede affiancata da un cast stellare di jazzisti, per un repertorio di derivazione pop che spazia da Joni Mitchell a James Taylor, da Leonard Cohen a Randy Newman, da Sting agli Steeley Dan. L'album comprende anche due brani originali ...

Luciana Souza: The Voice of the New Bossa Nova

by Joao Moreira dos Santos
October 25, 2007

Is Luciana Souza on the verge of reinventing bossa nova? A careful look at The New Bossa Nova (Verve, 2007), may well provide the answer to this question, as the Brazilian-born singer aims to present classic pop tunes with a bossa nova feeling. It's a kind of whispering, Luciana says; a whispering in a loud world.

AAJ: What is The New Bossa Nova? Is it imposing the bossa nova rhythm and feeling to major pop songs? ...

Herbie Hancock: River: The Joni Letters

by John Kelman
October 11, 2007

While it might be easy, on the surface, to view pianist Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters as a continuation of Possibilities (Hear, 2005), nothing could be further from the truth. Possibilities was an unapologetically pop record; River is unequivocally jazz--although such broad classifications shouldn't matter. River is, quite simply, a superb disc that takes Joni Mitchell's extant jazz proclivities and gives them an even greater interpretive boost. The majority of River is culled from Mitchell's “classic" songwriting ...

Luciana Souza: The New Bossa Nova

by John Kelman
October 3, 2007

When pianist Herbie Hancock released The New Standard (Verve, 1996)--an album of radically reworked pop tunes by artists ranging from Peter Gabriel to Prince--it wasn't exactly revolutionary, but it was the first time a major jazz artist had devoted an entire album to contemporary popular song. Singer Luciana Souza may not be as significant an artist--yet--as Hancock, but The New Bossa Nova explores a similar concept. By adapting material, ranging from Joni Mitchell and James Taylor to Leonard Cohen and ...

Luciana Souza: Duos II

by Brandt Reiter
August 19, 2005

This followup to singer Luciana Souza's 2002 Grammy-nominated Brazilian Duos charts much the same territory: it's a lilting, luscious record of acoustic Brazilian song interpreted through guitar and voice duets--and, if anything, it's even better than its excellent predecessor. Guitarists Romero Lubambo and Marco Pereira return from the previous project, appearing on five and three cuts, respectively, out of the disc's twelve, with newcomers Swami Jr. and New York-based Guilherme Monteiro each logging two. It's no surprise that ...