Luciana Souza - The New Bossa Nova

in a world that currently seems saturated with a new Brrazilian renaissance, bossa nova bins overflowing in trendy record stores, it’s refreshing to find an artist with a new take. Luciana chose to open with Down to You, a Joni Mitchell cover. A nice one, in fact. Most Joni covers are on the numerous Joni tribute albums. By moving right into a duet with the inimitable James Taylor, she risks pigeonholing herself into a genre, or an era, but it’s a nice duet. As far as bossa nova goes, I would call it bossa nova light, which might make it more distinguishable and more palatable than the bulk of new Brazilian and Brazilian-influenced releases out there. I give it a thumbs-up.

Author: listener | Category: Music Reviews | September 2007