Luciana Souza

Luciana Souza (born 12 July 1966) is a Brazilian jazz singer and composer who also works in bossa nova, pop, classical and chamber music. She won a Grammy Award in 2007, and has been nominated for seven others, most recently in 2024. Souza is considered to be one of jazz's leading singers and interpreters. The New York Times called her voice "smooth-surfaced, coolly sensuous and dartingly agile."

Early life and education Souza was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil. Her father Walter Santos was a singer, songwriter, and commercial musician who also contributed background vocals to bossa nova recordings by Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, and her mother Tereza Souza was a poet and lyricist. She began her recording career at age three with a radio commercial.

Career Souza has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Pérez, Guillermo Klein, John Patitucci, and others. She has been a soloist in new works by composers including Osvaldo Golijov, Derek Bermel, Patrick Zimmerli, Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, performing with the New York Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, American Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and A Far Cry.

Souza appeared in the 2008 David Mamet film Redbelt, and cowrote/translated several songs for the soundtrack. Her song "Muita Bobeira" was featured as a music sample on Windows Vista. On her 2012 album The Book of Chet, she covers the songs of Chet Baker.

Souza was San Francisco Performances' jazz artist in residence from 2005 through 2010. In 2022, she received a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant to compose a new album-length piece, Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes.

She collaborated with Trio Corrente on her 2023 album Cometa, with covers of Brazilian classics and original samba songs.

Personal life In 2006, Souza married record producer and musician Larry Klein.

Awards and honors Souza won a Grammy Award in 2007 as a featured vocalist on "Amelia" on Herbie Hancock's album River: The Joni Letters. She was nominated for Best Jazz Vocal Album for Brazilian Duos (2003), North and South (2004), Duos II (2006), Tide (2010), and The Book of Chet (2013). She was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album for Duos III (2013) and Cometa (2024). She was named Female Singer of the Year in 2005 and 2013 by the Jazz Journalists Association.

North and South Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album

Luciana Souza Jazz Journalists Association Best Female Jazz Singer

Duos II Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album

River: The Joni Letters Grammy Award for Album of the Year

Tide Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album

Duos III Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album The Book of Chet Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album

Luciana Souza Jazz Journalists Association Best Female Jazz Singer

Cometa Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album

Discography As leader An Answer to Your Silence (NYC Records 6030, 1998) The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (Sunnyside 1091, 2000) Brazilian Duos (Sunnyside 1100, 2002) Norte e Sul North and South (Sunnyside 1112, 2003) Neruda (Sunnyside 1132, 2004) Duos II (Sunnyside 1142, 2005) The New Bossa Nova (Verve B0009456 02, 2007) Tide (Verve B0012688 02, 2009) Duos III (Sunnyside 1315, 2012) The Book of Chet (Sunnyside 1316, 2012) Speaking in Tongues (Sunnyside 1410, 2015) The Book of Longing (Sunnyside 1518, 2018) Storytellers (with the WDR Big Band) (Sunnyside 1575, 2020) Cometa (with Trio Corrente) (Sunnyside 1696, 2023) Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes (Sunnyside, 2024)

As guest

With Till Bronner Oceana (Verve, 2006) Rio (Verve, 2008)

With Guillermo Klein Los Guachos II (Sunnyside, 1999) Los Guachos III (Sunnyside, 2002)

With Donny McCaslin The Way Through (Arabesque, 2003) Soar (Sunnyside, 2006)

With Bob Moses 1993: Time Stood Still (Gramavision, 1994) 1998: Nishoma (Grapeshots, 2000)

With John Patitucci Communion (Concord Jazz, 2001) Songs, Stories & Spirituals (Concord, 2003)

With Danilo Pérez Central Avenue (Impulse!, 1998) Motherland (Verve, 2000)

With Madeleine Peyroux Bare Bones (Rounder/Decca, 2009) Anthem (Decca, 2018)

With Maria Schneider Concert in the Garden (ArtistShare, 2004) Sky Blue (ArtistShare, 2007)

With Edward Simon Simplicitas (Criss Cross, 2005) David Binney, Oceanos (Criss Cross, 2007)

With others Clarice Assad, Imaginarium (Adventure Music, 2014) Cyro Baptista, Beat the Donkey (Tzadik, 2002) Adoniran Barbosa, O Poeta do Bexiga (Som Livre, 1990) Walter Becker, Circus Money (Mailboat, 2008) Derek Bermel and Alarm Will Sound, Canzonas Americanas (Cantaloupe, 2012) Stephen Bishop, Romance in Rio (One Eighty Music, 2007) Oscar Castro-Neves, All One (Mack Avenue, 2006) George Garzone, Alone (NYC, 1995) Aaron Goldberg, Worlds (Sunnyside, 2006) Osvaldo Golijov, Oceana (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007) Herbie Hancock, River: The Joni Letters (Verve, 2007) Fred Hersch, Two Hands Ten Voices (2004) Fernando Huergo, The Structure of Survival (Fresh Sound, 2006) Steve Kuhn, The Best Things (Reservoir, 2000) Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, LAGQ Brazil (Telarc, 2007) Arthur Maia, Arthur Maia (Paradoxx, 1997) Gregoire Maret, Wanted (Sunnyside, 2016) Bobby McFerrin, Vocabularies (Emarcy, 2010) Vince Mendoza, Nights On Earth (Art of Groove, 2011) Moss, Moss (Sunnyside, 2008) Hermeto Pascoal, Festa Dos Deuses (Polygram, 1992) Clarence Penn, Saomaye (Verve, 2002) Rebecca Pidgeon, Behind the Velvet Curtain (Great American Music Company, 2008) Dafnis Prieto, Cantar (Dafnison Music, 2022) Andrew Rathbun, Atwood Suites (Origin Records, 2017) Tim Ries, The Rolling Stones Project (Concord, 2005) Ryan Truesdel and Gil Evans, Centennial (Artist Share, 2012) Yellowjackets, Raising Our Voice (Mack Avenue, 2018) Miguel Zenon, Ceremonial (Marsalis Music, 2004)