One of the great perks of living the streaming era is the opportunity to chart an artist’s evolution from their earliest recordings to the present. Rio born singer and pianist Paula Maya brings a life time of Brazilian music bona fides and accolades to Rio de Janeiro, her latest dynamic, exotic, continuously hoppin’ album celebrating her lifelong passion for and contemporary possibilities of the genre.
She studied classical piano at the Brazilian Federation of Music, earned a Music Theory degree from the Brazilian Conservatory of Music and studied bossa nova and jazz with Luizinho Eca. Living for many years in Seattle, she hosted a weekly radio show devoted to Brazilian Music (Raizes) and was voted Best Brazilian Songwriter by The Seattle Weekly.
Yet when we listen to bits and pieces of her albums back in the 2000s on her label Yellow House Records, we’re hearing a very different, pop/rock, English singing side of her artistry. Nothing wrong with that – it’s just fascinating to note how much more engaging her later ventures have been since returning home to the style that’s always been part of her creative DNA.
Now based in Austin, TX, where she regularly performs with her group Paula Maya and Bossa Nova Plus, Maya, as if literally traveling back to Rio de Janeiro on the new seven track collection, goes full throttle into her embrace of her roots, starting with the haunting, hypnotic English/Portuguese opening singalong “Rosalie,” paying charming, soulful homage to Jobim with a sensual spin on “Vivo Sonhando” and letting her imagination run wild past the funky, percussive romp of the title track before sensually and romantically swaying her way through the sassy dance number “lemanja (Flores Do Mar),”
While Maya’s mesmerizing, alternately laid back and speedy paced vocals and piano playing are the focus throughout, her array of top Brazilian musicians play key roles, most notably electric guitarist Fernando Monteiro, acoustic guitarist Humberto Mirabelli, flutist Monica Avila (whose wafting harmonies shine throughout “Mulher”) and percussionist Andre Siqueira, whose infectious soundscape intro on “A Baleza” preps us for the intoxicating yet vocally smooth fire to come.
Comments