Luciana Souza facts for kids

Luciana Souza, born on 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, and classical styles. Luciana won a Grammy Award in 2007. She has also been nominated for this big music award seven other times, even in 2024! Many people think she is one of the best jazz singers and performers. The New York Times newspaper described her voice as "smooth-surfaced, coolly sensuous and dartingly agile."

Luciana Souza's Early Life and Schooling

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

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 shared her knowledge at 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.

Luciana Souza's Music Career

Luciana Souza has worked with many famous musicians. Some of them include Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, and Bobby McFerrin. She has also sung as a special soloist for new music pieces. These performances were with big groups like the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Luciana produced her very first album, An Answer to Your Silence, in 1998. For her second album, The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (2000), she wrote songs using poems by Elizabeth Bishop. Her 2004 album, Neruda, also featured her songs and voice set to the words of Pablo Neruda.

In 2008, Luciana appeared in the movie Redbelt by David Mamet. She also helped write and translate some songs for the movie's soundtrack. One of her songs, "Muita Bobeira," was even used as a music sample on Windows Vista computers. On her 2012 album, The Book of Chet, she sang songs originally by Chet Baker. Her 2018 album, The Book of Longing, featured her music set to 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.

In 2023, she released the album Cometa with Trio Corrente. This album included covers of classic Brazilian songs and new samba songs. They even performed on NPR's Tiny Desk concert series in May 2024, singing songs from Cometa.

Luciana Souza's 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 for Luciana Souza

Luciana Souza won a Grammy Award in 2007. This was for her singing on the song "Amelia" from Herbie Hancock's album River: The Joni Letters. She has been nominated for the Best Jazz Vocal Album several times. These nominations were for her albums Brazilian Duos (2003), North and South (2004), Duos II (2006), Tide (2010), and The Book of Chet (2013).

She was also nominated for the 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.

Luciana Souza's Albums

Albums as the Main Artist

• 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)

Albums as a Guest Singer

Luciana Souza has also appeared as a guest singer on many albums by other artists. Here are some of them:

See also

In Spanish: Luciana Souza para niños