JOYCE
Hard Bossa
(Far Out Records)
Joyce has been in the music business for over thirty years. She has played with all the great musicians in Brazil. Musicians like Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina and Antonio Carlos Jobim to mention but a few. She is gifted with a remarkable voice. Gilles Peterson is claiming that she is a "Gods gift to the Bossanova".
There are no obviously famous musicians on Hard Bossa, except for Joyce, but they are all excellent musicians. Joyce´s voice is as beautiful as ever and the band is swinging.
Ana Martins on guest vocals has the same fragile and tender timbre as the late Elis Regina used to have. Joyce´s voice and singing is clear as a spring well. Most of the songs on Hard Bossa is in midtempo, late night jazz club style. We don´t get much of the spiritual and euphoric scat singing that brought us the amazing floor filler Aldeia de ogum from the album Feminina, (1980).
Hard Bossa is the perfect album for a late night session or for the morning after a glorious night at the club when you wake up beside a beautiful one.
The tender bossa and the soft jazzy touch reminds me of a long time favorite that I never gets tired of, Radka Toneff´s and Steve Dobrogosz´s collaboration on Fairytales off Odin Records.
Hard Bossa is of those rare gems with an timeless quality and I instantly felt that this album will be around for quite some time. This is Brazilian jazz at its best. Not to be missed!