Raiz

2015 release. Raiz marks fifty years of Joyce Moreno's imperative involvement in Brazil's rich musical heritage: paying tribute to some of the beautiful Brazilian standards she was listening to around the time she first stepped foot in a recording studio. Joyce's insurmountable talent and unfaltering grace shine as bright as ever on this landmark record. In 1964, Joyce, aged 15, first stepped into a professional recording studio. Her older brother, also a musician, was a member of Rio's early bossa nova clique: a good friend of Eumir Deodato, Luis Carlos Vinhas and Roberto Menescal (by this point, a notable name in Brazil). Finding a private, home tape recording of Joyce playing guitar and singing, Joyce's brother played it to Roberto Menescal. When Joyce returned home from school to find her secret song exposed, she ran to her room, slammed the door and cried for the rest of the day. But a month later, she received a call from Menescal, asking if she wanted to sing on a record he was producing: an album called Sambacana (1981), featuring the music of a little known composer from the state of Minas Gerais. Joyce excitedly accepted and took her first step into a recording studio, where she realized what she was capable of and what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. It seemed only fitting to Joyce to reciprocate Roberto Menescal's invitation into the studio and Menescal features on Joyce's versions of his '60s bossa classics "O Barquinho" and "Nós E O Mar". Raiz also features a host of extremely distinguished Brazilian musicians: Tutty Moreno (drums), Helio Alves (piano) and Rodolfo Stroeter (bass). Joyce's celebrated and undeniably distinctive approach to the music of fabled artists such as Tom Jobim, Baden Powell, Ildasio Tavares, Vinicius de Moraes, Ronaldo Boscoli and of course Roberto Menescal, among other Brazilian greats, makes Raiz a truly momentous piece of Brazilian musical history.