Nóis reviews

Brazilian Monica Vasconcelos welds jazz to samba and is appearing at the Leamington Jazz Weekend - 6th May 2003

My tip for concert of the festival: Monica Vasconcelos and Nois. The Brazilian singer is up there with the best Rio has to offer, and her band, which builds punchy jazz charts and great soloists into the seductive samba beats, brings far greater depth and rich experimentation than is usual in this sometimes conservative style of music.

concert: Barbican - September 21st 2002

 context - the following extract is about an appearance by Nóis supporting Airto and Flora Purim at the Barbican on September 21st 2002

"(...) The opening set by the nine-piece British Brazilian specialists Nóis, was the opposite. Whether playing original pieces or reinterpreting the classic love songs of Roberto Carlos, the singer Mônica Vasconcelos and her musicians produced an atmosphere and setting appropriate for each song. Her sunny personality and verbal facility with the most tongue-twisting Portuguese lyrics brought her applause, and there was acclaim for the inventive soprano playing of Ingrid Laubrock and the punchy trumpet of Simon Finch."

CD Nois: Oferenda

The cover artwork has the innovative and rhythmically subtle British-resident Brazilian singer Mônica Vasconcelos strolling on a Brazilian beach - but Girl From Ipanema doesn't appear on the programme, and Vasconcelos has imparted a tougher edge to her music with this disc.

She communicates more rhythmic drive than most singers, to barely more than a vocal whisper and a hint of samba percussion, but much of this record uses an expanded version of her Nois ensemble, with plenty of brassy and bristling trumpet soloing, subtle deployment of electronic programming and some downright hard funk to complement the leader's more characteristically breathy delicacy on ballads. Not so much a step, more a glide forward for this elegantly musical performer.