Luciana Souza

Her song "Muita Bobeira" was featured as a music sample on Windows Vista.

Grammy winner Luciana Souza is one of jazz's leading singers and interpreters. Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Ms. Souza’s work transcends traditional boundaries around musical styles. Ms. Souza has performed and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Bobby McFerrin, Maria Schneider, Danilo Perez, Guillermo Klein, John Patitucci, and many others. She has been a prominent soloist in important new works by composers Osvaldo Golijov, Derek Bermel, Patrick Zimmerli, Rachel Grimes, Angelica Negron, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider, performing with the New York Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, and A Far Cry.

Ms. Souza has been releasing celebrated recordings since 2002 - including her six Grammy-nominated records Brazilian Duos, North and South, Duos II, Tide, Duos III, and The Book of Chet. Her critically acclaimed ninth recording for the Sunnyside label, The Book of Longing, presents her settings of poems by Leonard Cohen, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Christina Rossetti.

Ms. Souza began her recording career at age three with a radio commercial. She spent four years on faculty at Berklee College of Music, where she received a Bachelor's in Jazz Composition. Ms. Souza earned a Master's degree in Jazz Studies from the New England Conservatory of Music and taught for four years at Manhattan School of Music. Ms. Souza has twice been named Best Female Jazz Singer by the Jazz Journalists Association, in 2005 and 2013.

Ms. Souza appeared in the 2008 David Mamet film Redbelt, and cowrote/translated several songs for the soundtrack.

Souza won a Grammy Award in 2007 as a featured vocalist 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). She was named Female Singer of the Year in 2005 and 2013 by the Jazz Journalists Association.

As leader

• An Answer to Your Silence (NYC, 1998)
• The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop and Other Songs (Sunnyside, 2000)
• Brazilian Duos (Biscoito Fino, 2002)
• Norte e Sul (Biscoito Fino, 2003)
• Neruda (Sunnyside, 2004)
• Duos II (Sunnyside, 2005)
• The New Bossa Nova (Verve, 2007)
• Tide (Verve, 2009)
• Duos III (Sunnyside, 2012)
• The Book of Chet (Sunnyside, 2012)
• Speaking in Tongues (Sunnyside, 2015)
• The Book of Longing (Sunnyside, 2018)
• Storytellers (Sunnyside, 2020)

As guest

• Block, Melissa. "Luciana Souza: From Bossa Nova to Chet Baker". (NPR) August 31, 2012.
• Blumenfeld, Larry. "Loneliness in Two Languages". The Wall Street Journal. August 27, 2012
• Garsd, Jasmine. "Saudade - An Unstoppable, Undeniably Potent Word". NPR, Alt Latino. February 28, 2014.
• Jacki Lyden. "Souza Lends a Fresh Note to Brazilian Music". NPR. May 14, 2005.
• McGowan, Chris. "Luciana Souza: A Bossa Nova Baby Makes Her Way in the Jazz Realm". The Huffington Post. January 4, 2014.
• McGowan, Chris. The Brazilian Music Book: Brazil's Singers, Songwriters and Musicians Tell the Story of Bossa Nova, MPB, and Brazilian Jazz and Pop. Culture Planet, June 2014
• Morrison, Allen. "Distill Everything". Down Beat. October 2012
• Ratliff, Ben. "Guitar and Conversation: A Singer at Ease with Her Roots". The New York Times. November 27, 2001
• Smith, Steve. "Crossing Borders with Allure". The New York Times. April 7, 2014
• Teachout, Terry. "She's Brazilian, Tempered by a Bit of Everything Else". The New York Times. August 4, 2002