Luciana Souza facts for kids

Luciana Souza (born July 12, 1966) is a talented singer and composer from Brazil. She is famous for her jazz music, but she also sings bossa nova, pop, classical, and chamber music. Luciana won a Grammy Award in 2007. She has also been nominated for seven other Grammy Awards, with the most recent one in 2024. Many people consider her one of the best jazz singers in the world. The New York Times newspaper once described her voice as "smooth-surfaced, coolly sensuous and dartingly agile."

Early Life and Learning

Luciana Souza was born and grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. Her father, Walter Santos, was a singer and songwriter. He even sang background vocals for famous bossa nova artists like Antônio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto. Her mother, Tereza Souza, was a poet who wrote song lyrics. Luciana started her singing career very early, recording a radio commercial when she was just three years old!

In 1985, when she was 17, Luciana moved from Brazil to the United States. She went to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. There, she earned a special degree in jazz composition. After graduating, she taught at Berklee for four years. She also earned a master's degree in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music. Luciana taught at the Manhattan School of Music for four years too. She has also taught at other universities, including the University of California, Los Angeles and California Institute of the Arts. Since 2024, she has been a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music.

Her Music Career

Luciana Souza has performed and recorded music with many famous artists. Some of these include Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Bobby McFerrin. She has also worked with big orchestras like the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Her Own Albums

Luciana produced her first album, An Answer to Your Silence, in 1998. For her second album, The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (2000), she created songs using the poems of Elizabeth Bishop. Her 2004 album, Neruda, featured her own music and singing set to the words of the poet Pablo Neruda.

In 2012, she released The Book of Chet, which featured her singing songs by the jazz musician Chet Baker. Her 2018 album, The Book of Longing, included her musical versions of poems by famous writers like Leonard Cohen and Emily Dickinson. That same year, she worked and toured with the band Yellowjackets.

From 2005 to 2010, Luciana was a special jazz artist for San Francisco Performances. In 2022, she received a grant to create a new album-length piece called Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes.

Recent Work

In 2023, Luciana worked with Trio Corrente on her album Cometa. This album included covers of classic Brazilian songs and new samba songs. They performed songs from Cometa on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series, which was shown on May 10, 2024.

Personal Life

In 2006, Luciana Souza married Larry Klein, who is a record producer and musician. They have one son named Noah. The family lives in Los Angeles.

Awards and Honors

Luciana Souza won a Grammy Award in 2007. She was a featured singer on the song "Amelia" from Herbie Hancock's album River: The Joni Letters.

She has been nominated for many other Grammy Awards:

• For Best Jazz Vocal Album for her albums Brazilian Duos (2003), North and South (2004), Duos II (2006), Tide (2010), and The Book of Chet (2013).
• For Best Latin Jazz Album for Duos III (2013) and Cometa (2024).

The Jazz Journalists Association named her Female Singer of the Year in both 2005 and 2013.

Discography

As Leader

• An Answer to Your Silence (1998)
• The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (2000)
• Brazilian Duos (2002)
• Norte e Sul (2003)
• Neruda (2004)
• Duos II (2005)
• The New Bossa Nova (2007)
• Tide (2009)
• Duos III (2012)
• The Book of Chet (2012)
• Speaking in Tongues (2015)
• The Book of Longing (2018)
• Storytellers (2020)
• Cometa (with Trio Corrente, 2023)
• Twenty-Four Short Musical Episodes (2024)

See also

In Spanish: Luciana Souza para niños