Tide (Verve Music Group)
Luciana Souza
Released May 26, 2009
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Vocal Album 2010
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mRnQ2Q3HxGKd7mwDd401Q2qLxtXIXXXZs
Spotify:
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About:
For Brazilian singer and composer Luciana Souza, geography and language have been two of the most important driving forces in her life.
Geography, because Souza was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, but then left home when she was just 17 to study music in Boston. She later spent a decade making a name for herself in the jazz scene in New York. And then, several years ago, she moved to Los Angeles. So, she says, “I’ve had feelings of being uprooted, and disoriented, even as I have also aspired to being centered and calm.”
And the poetry? “Poetry and music have helped me to find that center, and that calm, and have carried me throughout the years — along with love, of course,” says Souza.
Luciana Souza, now in her late 40s, explores some of those feelings — along with the pull of nostalgia — on her latest album, “Tide,” which was nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
It was produced by Larry Klein, the producer and bassist who is also her husband — and who was married to Joni Mitchell for many years in the ‘80s and ‘90s, producing several of Mitchell’s records between the early ‘80s and early ‘00s. This is Souza’s second collaboration with Klein, whom she married in 2006. And in some respects, a few tracks on “Tide” recall some of Mitchell’s jazzier, Klein-produced albums.
Track Listing:
1. Adeus America & Eu Quero Um Samba (Geraldo Jacques / Haroldo Barbosa / Janet de Almeida) 5:04
2. Fire and Wood (David Batteau / Larry Klein / Luciana Souza) 5:16
3. Our Glided Home (David Batteau / Larry Klein / Luciana Souza) 3:21
4. Love-Poem 65 (Larry Klein / Luciana Souza) 3:49
5. Circus Life (David Batteau / Larry Klein / Luciana Souza) 3:14
6. Once Again (David Batteau / Larry Klein / Luciana Souza) 4:58
7. Tide (Larry Klein / Luciana Souza) 6:18
8. Sorriu Para Mim (Luis Claudio) 3:46
9. Chuva (Luciana Souza / Paulo Leminski) 4:33
10. Amulet (Paul Simon) 2:17
Personnel:
Luciana Souza: vocals
Larry Goldings: Fender Rhodes (2), organ (2, 4, 5, 6, 7), piano (3, 6), accordion (9)
Larry Klein: bass (1 – 9)
Vinnie Colaiuta: drums (1 – 9)
Larry Koonse: guitar (2, 4, 6, 7, 10)
Romero Lubambo: guitar (1, 3, 5, 8, 9)
Cyro Baptista: percussion (2, 3, 5, 8, 9)
Rebecca Pidgeon: background vocals (2, 5)
Recorded at Henson Recording Studios and Market Street
Producer: Larry Klein
Recorded by Helik Hadar
Assistant Engineer: Tom Syrowski
Mastered by Bernie Grundman
Mixed by Helik Hadar
Photography by Gabriel Rinaldi
Design: Marie Carette
Review:
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 credits on seven of the ten tunes, while husband and
bassist Larry Klein lends his pen to six. Souza’s clear-toned sound and the
intimacy in her delivery suggest Joni Mitchell as one source of
inspiration, particularly on the lovely “Our Gilded Home.” Souza has
covered Mitchell’s “Down to You” on The New Bossa Nova (Verve,
2007) and gave one of the more convincing interpretations of Mitchell’s music—a
beguiling version of “Amelia” on Herbie Hancock’s River: The
Joni Letters (Verve, 2007). Souza certainly shares the poet’s soul
that is at the centre of Mitchell’s work; however, the songs on Tide are
less word drunk and ultimately sweeter.
A couple of breezy samba numbers showcase Souza’s impressive scatting, shadowed
by the lively guitar of Romero Lubambo which brings an injection of zest to a
familiar style. Vinnie Colaiuta, whose drumming throughout the CD is as
understated and as refined as anything he’s ever done, adds skipping brushes to
these sunny tunes. Also instantly likeable for their hummable melodies, are the
finger-snapping “Fire and Wood” which features a lovely Fender Rhodes
solo from Larry Goldings, and “Circus Life,” with an infectious
vocal refrain from Souza.
Real beauty lies in the two songs inspired by poet
e.e. cummings. In the past Souza has wrapped her music around the poetry of
Pablo Neruda and Elizabeth Browning, and it is an idiom that she clearly
thrives in. Here she brings a dreamy, shimmering quality to the ballads
“Love —Poem 65” and “Tide;” both pieces, beautifully
arranged, are enriched by the sympathetic playing of guitarist Larry Koonse.
Two other songs co-written by Souza prove her love of a ballad: the gently
paced, “Once Again,” with simple piano accompaniment and seductive
chord changes, and “Chuva,” an incantation sung in Portuguese. The
latter track is quite sublime, and features subtle percussive touches from Cyro
Baptista.
The album closes with “Amulet,” a tune written by the great wordsmith
Paul Simon especially for Souza, and ironically it is wordless; Souza’s voice
traces the melody in harmony with the guitar of Larry Koonse, tailing away on a
high note, like a gliding bird receding on the horizon.
Souza’s tremendous versatility—she has recorded with Hermeto Pascoal, Fred Hersch, Maria Schneider and Paul Simon, with philharmonic orchestras and in chamber settings—means that the variation in styles should come as no surprise. Yet the changes in pace and mood of the songs, and the range of emotions touched upon by Souza are undeniably impressive all the same. A contender for best vocal album of the year.
Ian Patterson (All About Jazz)
