Customer Reviews

North & South

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Luciana Souza's CD, "North and South," is the last installment of her three-part reflections on musical and poetic influences from Brazil, where she was born, and from New York, her adopted home. She is a gifted composer and arranger, as well as an extraordinary vocalist.

Ms. Souza's songs are like nothing I've heard before - mesmerizing - haunting - intense. She sings these eight tracks in both English and Portuguese, in her distinctive, silky, somewhat smokey, low voice. Her previous CD, "Brazil Duos," was nominated at the 45th Grammy Awards for the Best Vocal Jazz Album. And the New York Times placed the CD on its Best Of Year-End List. Fans and new listeners, alike, are bound to welcome this new addition to Ms. Souza's repertoire with great enthusiasm. I certainly did!

Souza takes Billie Holiday's "All of Me" and makes it her very own. Her somber, minimalist versions of "Never Let Me Go," and "When Your Lover Has Gone" are superb. She takes flight with her vocal improvisations in "Chega de Saudade," with Edward Simon on the piano. And Souza's own composition, "I Shall Wait," is a signature piece, and hauntingly poetic. The classic Samba, sung light, "Se E Tarde Me Perdoa" with bassist Scott Colley and drummer Clarence Penn, is simply wonderful.

Actually Luciana Souza's voice soars throughout this CD, and she invites her listeners to fly with her. Great music! Highly recommended!

she gets three stars only because shes capable of better this is not a good album. instead check out souzas work with danilo perez and co on the motherland album luciana sounds more comfortable singing with top notch musicians accompanied by impressive drummer brian blade and others led by brillant panamanian pianist danilo perez beautiful music motherland

If you're looking for something average, you're at the wrong adress here, for as you can deduce from the intense reactions below and above, there is absolutely NOTHING 'average' about Luciana Souza.
A beautiful singer with a finely tuned instrument, who infuses Standards from Brazil and the Great American Songbook with her uniquely personal touch, and who on top of that is an amazingly talented composer.
Stop reading and check out her composition "No Wonder" with it 's infectious joy and beauty.Live Luciana delivers every time again as this fan has witnessed recentely in New York City- from the Jazz Standard to Carnegie Hall, Luciana is setting her own standard and will surely bless us with her talent for many years to come.
Hope she wins that Grammy this time ; she truly deserves it!

North & South is a great album.The best one released this year. Luciana Souza shows a mature voice, assured phrasing and incredible precise time. She is a great singer and anyone with a bit of inteligence would realize it. I bought several copies and gave to my friends. They all agree: Luciana is superb! Incredible! I Hope she will play in Paris soon.

When I got this one, I put it on my MP3 player and listended to it all day every day for a month. It is a great blend of soothing, moving, deeply emotional and sweet.

As usual Ms. Souza has created an unmistakably amazing album. For those of you who don't know, she is really just about *the* most able bodied (er, able vocaled) vocalist alive. Her voice, passion, arranging, sense of rhythm, and limitless technical facility (she can just sing anything, in any range) is totally unbelivable to me and her musicianship is on par with the best in the world. Luciana is at the top of my list among the greatest living jazz singers along with Kate McGarry, Nancy King, Madeline Eastman, and Dominique Eade. In my opinion, those who wrote the other reviews here on amazon.com are just ignorant of deaf. Just listen to "I shall wait" # 2 on North and South. It kills me every time I listen to it. So listen to this album! And buy it!

It takes a lot to sing a classic song like Chega de Saudade and turn it into a lifeless, boring ballad. Chega has been one of Antonio Carlos Jobim's most successful and popular compositions. Her interpretation not only doesn't do justice to the song, but also is an insult to the memory of the great Brazilian composer who enriched our lives with such classics as Desafinado, One Note Samba and Insensatez, to name just a few.

This is the worst of all albums recorded by the NY-born based Brazilian singer Luciana Souza. When she sings Brazilian music in Portuguese language, it's fine. But her heavy accent when singing in English is terrible. Why did she try to record such old and often recorded jazz standars like All of Me and Never Let Me Go? It doesn't makes sense for me, since she doesn't brings nothing new to such songs. The mellow arrangements are very predictable, Luciana's phrasing is uninspired through the album. Jazz ballads? Look for the new albums by such true divas as Shirley Horn, Dianne Reeves, Itamara Koorax and Helen Merrill.

I don't like Souza's tone nor her articulation. Her liner notes explain at lenght Souza's efforts at trying to create a whole rather than merely a pretentious synthesis of her Brazilian roots with jazz ballads. I ask: does it work? Well, most of the time it does not, most of the tracks are too languid, played in very slow tempos. Only Shirley Horn and Carmen McRae knew how do it. And, unfortunately, Souza is no Carmen, no Shirley, no Helen Merril.

A very disappointing album, very boring arrangements. This singer cannot be compared to Astrud nor Flora. Luciana has no charm, she doesn't swings, the whole project is a disaster. The pretentious version of Chega de Saudade is ridiculous!