Brazilian songstress Luciana Souza
Clear streams of jazz
Clear streams of jazz
By Jonathan Gramling
I have to admit that I fell in love with Luciana Souza’s voice the moment I heard it. It
was a mountain stream of jazz, sometimes placid, sometimes cascading down a chasm
of feeling, always clear and refreshing. Souza is just a pleasure to listen to.
Souza, who will be performing at the Wisconsin Union Theater with two fellow
Brazilians, began performing — in a way — when she was just a toddler. Her parents
were Bossa Nova innovators who also worked in a jingle house. “I used to sing around
the house and, I guess, show musicality,” Souza said in a phone interview with The
Capital City Hues. “I was able to sing in tune at a very young age. They would take me to
studios when they had recordings that included a child’s voice. So I did a bunch of
jingles and commercials when I was very, very little and through my entire upbringing in
Brazil.”
Although she has ventured into classical and pop music, Souza is unabashedly a
Brazilian jazz singer. “I have no way of escaping my Brazilian heritage and I don’t want
to,” Souza said. “On the other hand, I love celebrating it. So that places me as a Latin
artist, in a way, because I am from South America. I think my natural, sort of native voice,
comes out as a Brazilian.”
While she could have branched out into almost any genre of music when she came to
study in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the New England
Conservatory of Music, Souza chose to perform jazz as a professional. Perhaps part of
the reason is that her older brother loved jazz and her parents brought home recordings
of the big bands. But the major reason is she is attracted to its form and style.
“The music to me seems so structured, yet so free,” Souza said. “And I love the
people constantly improvising and creating new melodies on top of the harmonies
inspired by the composer’s melodies. That just sounded to me like a world that is free and
endless and just very encompassing, so I latched on to that idea of becoming a jazz
singer. What I embrace from jazz is that spirit, that spirit of creating something new, even
if you revisit an older song or a standard, something that has been sung so many, many
times. You can still bring your own reading of that song to it. In some ways, you can
improvise in the moment before an audience. I always respect scores and pay attention
I have to admit that I fell in love with Luciana Souza’s voice the moment I heard it. It
was a mountain stream of jazz, sometimes placid, sometimes cascading down a chasm
of feeling, always clear and refreshing. Souza is just a pleasure to listen to.
Souza, who will be performing at the Wisconsin Union Theater with two fellow
Brazilians, began performing — in a way — when she was just a toddler. Her parents
were Bossa Nova innovators who also worked in a jingle house. “I used to sing around
the house and, I guess, show musicality,” Souza said in a phone interview with The
Capital City Hues. “I was able to sing in tune at a very young age. They would take me to
studios when they had recordings that included a child’s voice. So I did a bunch of
jingles and commercials when I was very, very little and through my entire upbringing in
Brazil.”
Although she has ventured into classical and pop music, Souza is unabashedly a
Brazilian jazz singer. “I have no way of escaping my Brazilian heritage and I don’t want
to,” Souza said. “On the other hand, I love celebrating it. So that places me as a Latin
artist, in a way, because I am from South America. I think my natural, sort of native voice,
comes out as a Brazilian.”
While she could have branched out into almost any genre of music when she came to
study in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and the New England
Conservatory of Music, Souza chose to perform jazz as a professional. Perhaps part of
the reason is that her older brother loved jazz and her parents brought home recordings
of the big bands. But the major reason is she is attracted to its form and style.
“The music to me seems so structured, yet so free,” Souza said. “And I love the
people constantly improvising and creating new melodies on top of the harmonies
inspired by the composer’s melodies. That just sounded to me like a world that is free and
endless and just very encompassing, so I latched on to that idea of becoming a jazz
singer. What I embrace from jazz is that spirit, that spirit of creating something new, even
if you revisit an older song or a standard, something that has been sung so many, many
times. You can still bring your own reading of that song to it. In some ways, you can
improvise in the moment before an audience. I always respect scores and pay attention
and reverence to the melody and harmony and everything that is there. That’s where the sophistication of a jazz musician comes from, just
like a classical musician has great devotion and wants to be a master of what he or she does. The jazz musician has this depth and
sophistication of knowledge of harmony and melody and rhythm. The whole world is very inspiring to me. And it is one that accepts me. Being
a jazz singer is a pretty open world. So you can pretty much do anything.”
That spirit of innovation and freedom has led her to collaborate with musicians from Herbie Hancock to Paul Simon. “I have to tell you
that each one of these environments, each one of these artists, it’s like going to school,” Souza said. “You are exposed to a different world in
the universe of artistic ideas and sensibilities. I am so grateful that I rarely say no to things because it really exposes me to the best of what
music has to offer and there is not a situation that I come out of where I am not challenged or profoundly changed by the people I get to make
music with. I get exposed to so many different things. I could have never imagined when I left Brazil that this would happen to me, but it
really is the greatest gift.”
Like most singers, Souza likes to tell a story with her music. “Perhaps you write it and it relates to you, Souza said. “Or it tells the story
of others that you haven’t been faced with, but you are interested and curious about it. Each song provides me with a storyline, a melody,
which has a story. It is the contour of the notes and how they are shaped. And they are placed with the rhythms and the harmonies, sort of the
coloring and dressing of everything. These are all different facets of what I like to sing as a singer. I like to be able to read the lyrics and be
moved by that story, listen to the melody and the rhythm and the harmony and be moved and compelled to sing it, for whatever reason it is.”
Luciana Souza will perform at the Wisconsin Union Theater February 12, 8 p.m. Tickets are $18-$35. Visit http://uniontheater.wisc.edu/ for
ticket information. Visit www.lucianasouza.com to listen to Souza’s music.
like a classical musician has great devotion and wants to be a master of what he or she does. The jazz musician has this depth and
sophistication of knowledge of harmony and melody and rhythm. The whole world is very inspiring to me. And it is one that accepts me. Being
a jazz singer is a pretty open world. So you can pretty much do anything.”
That spirit of innovation and freedom has led her to collaborate with musicians from Herbie Hancock to Paul Simon. “I have to tell you
that each one of these environments, each one of these artists, it’s like going to school,” Souza said. “You are exposed to a different world in
the universe of artistic ideas and sensibilities. I am so grateful that I rarely say no to things because it really exposes me to the best of what
music has to offer and there is not a situation that I come out of where I am not challenged or profoundly changed by the people I get to make
music with. I get exposed to so many different things. I could have never imagined when I left Brazil that this would happen to me, but it
really is the greatest gift.”
Like most singers, Souza likes to tell a story with her music. “Perhaps you write it and it relates to you, Souza said. “Or it tells the story
of others that you haven’t been faced with, but you are interested and curious about it. Each song provides me with a storyline, a melody,
which has a story. It is the contour of the notes and how they are shaped. And they are placed with the rhythms and the harmonies, sort of the
coloring and dressing of everything. These are all different facets of what I like to sing as a singer. I like to be able to read the lyrics and be
moved by that story, listen to the melody and the rhythm and the harmony and be moved and compelled to sing it, for whatever reason it is.”
Luciana Souza will perform at the Wisconsin Union Theater February 12, 8 p.m. Tickets are $18-$35. Visit http://uniontheater.wisc.edu/ for
ticket information. Visit www.lucianasouza.com to listen to Souza’s music.
Four-time Grammy-nominated jazz singer Luciana
Souza will be performing at the Wisconsin Union
Theater on February
Souza will be performing at the Wisconsin Union
Theater on February
