Claudia Villela at Kuumbwa Jazz Center

Vocalist Claudia Villela’s talent for musical exploration knows no limits. Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, she absorbed the sounds of Brazil all around her: Samba, bossa nova, partido alto, baião, choro, as well as the influences of Brazil’s classical composers and American jazz musicians, from traditional to avant garde. For Villela’s, music is a spiritual exercise to be embraced openly and unpremeditated, a search for inspiration and spontaneity. Her compositions and vocal improvisations encompass the full range of human emotion, sometimes dramatic, sometimes humorous, but always fascinating. JazzTimes magazine has described her as “a female Bobby McFerrin.”...

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Vocalist Claudia Villela’s talent for musical exploration knows no limits. Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, she absorbed the sounds of Brazil all around her: Samba, bossa nova, partido alto, baião, choro, as well as the influences of Brazil’s classical composers and American jazz musicians, from traditional to avant garde. For Villela’s, music is a spiritual exercise to be embraced openly and unpremeditated, a search for inspiration and spontaneity. Her compositions and vocal improvisations encompass the full range of human emotion, sometimes dramatic, sometimes humorous, but always fascinating. JazzTimes magazine has described her as “a female Bobby McFerrin.”

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