What have been some of the highlights of your
career so far?
I was signed by the largest independent label and
publisher in Japan, only a few months after the release
of my first album, which was mind-blowing.
Incidentally, I was unfortunately visiting Japan when
the earthquake happened, which was the worst three
minutes of my life, but it couldn’t stop me going back
and getting my music out there. In Brazil, it was
playing and recording with the great bossa legends,
Joao Donato and Roberto Menescal, who offered to
record their songs with me on my albums as new
English versions that I would write. Coming from that,
I had an amazing collaboration with the lyricist and
poet Lysias Enio (Joao Donato’s brother) who wrote
many of the great songs of the 60s, and I have almost
finished their repertoire of English versions. I was
really fortunate to also write new material with Cris
Delanno and Alex Moreira of the great Brazilian band
Bossacucanova, and sang and produced my music with
many of Rio’s true talents including Ronaldo Cotrim
(producer of my first album Sunset Monkeys) and
Barbara Mendes.
Further afield I teamed up with a French producer
and writer Manuel Guignard in Paris and wrote and
recorded the first French version of Gershwin’s
“S Wonderful”, which Warner Brother’s approved as
the official French version. That was full on.
And then there’s Turkey. The Turks for some
reason took a real interest in my music as it got known
internationally, and I’ve been back there three times to
record, as a guest on Karnaval TV and Joy FM, Joy
Jazz, and played in front of an estimated 1.5 million
viewers on Turkey’s national midday show – scary.
My latest visit was during the highly publicized
protests in Taksim Square, which my song “Ordinary”
was written about.
A great highlight was also an hour-long special on
the BBC’s World of Music.
You sing in the style of music known as “Solar”.
Could you tell us more about this kind of music and
why you were drawn to it?
The genre “Solar” was created by a few of us in Rio to
try to define that music which, although it may have
bossa roots, was not orthodox bossa or even
necessarily sung in Portuguese. It’s sunny, about the
good life and beaches, more mainstream and less
chillout, and not necessarily electronic like Nu-Jazz.
It’s classic sounding also, but with more sex,
sensuality, and even surf than you would find in the
Great American Songbook. Solar is like a very close