Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Last year Brazilian singer, guitarist, and composer Joyce (who recently decided to start using her full name, Joyce Moreno) released Ao Vivo (EMI, Brazil), a live record of material spanning her four-decade career. Like most of the albums she’s made since the late 70s, it’s in a sophisticated jazz-bossa nova mode–ever since her 1977 move to New York, where she started working with jazz folks like saxophonist Michael Brecker and arranger Claus Ogerman, that influence has marked her sound. Ao Vivo, cut with her longtime working quartet–whose drummer, Tutty Moreno, is her husband–is typically breezy and sparse. Joyce occasionally indulges in wordless vocal improvisations, but she’s at her best when she sticks closer to the tunes, subtly shading them with her rhythmic dexterity, melodic invention, and precise control of pitch. Pianist João Donato and singers Dori Caymmi, Leila Pinheiro, and Mônica Salmaso all make cameos.
Today’s playlist:
