About
Claudia Villela
When people think of Brazilian music, the Samba and its daughter, the Bossa Nova, automatically come to mind. But in fact, Brazil is a land of an extraordinary variety and depth of musical styles, music with a range that speaks from the heart to the gamut of human emotions.As a child in Rio de Janiero, Claudia Villela would fall asleep lulled by the music from a samba school that practiced nightly behind her grandparents' home. "I woke up to the sound of my mother singing while my father played the harmonica," she recalls. "My singing is the sum of all the music I've heard, from Brazilian baroque to bossa nova to free jazz, the nostalgic and modern. It comes from all those memories."
Villela's haunting improvisations and her surprising five-octave range has earned her a consistent following at such venues as the Monterey Jazz Festival, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Jazz at Filoli, Yoshi's Nitespot, Kimball's, and other clubs and festival dates in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the country. Audiences are drawn to the dimension and playfulness of her jazz singing, which has its own memorable character. As San Francisco Examiner jazz critic Phil Elwood put it, "Villela actually dances with her voice on top of Brazilian beats."
Her 1995 release First Light (the English translation of "taina," the name of her record company) is her second album. Produced by Harvie Swartz, First Light features Claudia's original compositions and folkloric Brazilian songs accompanied by Michael Brecker, Danny Gottlieb and Toninho Horta, who also sings on a beautiful bossa duet which makes its debut on this album. Her first album was a self-produced 1994 CD, Asa Verde (Taina Music), a collection of her own compositions. One cut includes the voices of her two young daughters, Carla and Christina.
Villela's musical education began early. He father presented her with an accordion-like pianola on her first birthday. She started singing in festivals around Rio at age 15; recorded as a back-up singer and improvised vocals for movie soundtracks.
She planned to go to medical school but then opted for music therapy. "I was very curious about the link between psychology and physiology ---the healing aspect of music." Treating patients with music made Villela realize the "shaman side" of musical sound. "When you work with people who have neurological or physical disturbance, and you begin to improvise with sounds they can hear in the body, you become a shaman," she says. "The spiritual side of music is so important. To this day, when I'm singing, I go to the emotion, the power that influences people. I'm looking for real moments of connection."
She arrived in California in 1984. A year later she began singing with the Stanford University Chorus, and in 1986 joined the De Anza College Jazz Singers---which won First Prize in Downbeat's vocal jazz competition that year. She won a scholarship to study with Sheila Jordan at Manhattan School of Music; her knack for fluid be-bop improvisation won her a Jay Shore jazz scholarship to study with Ray Brown at Cabrillo College. "I rely on intuition, I don't go for the premeditated, calculated thing when I'm performing," she says. "I like an aspect of losing myself, of going into the unknown. I'll just take the conditions of this moment and make something of it. It can turn out to be magical. I'll hit a moment that has a mysterious, nurturing, confessional feeling. People really get it."
So do the critics. Mark Holston of Jazziz called Villela "intelligent and seductive." And according to Helcio Milito, one of the fathers of bossa nova, "Claudia is the biggest expression of Brazilian music in the U.S. today."
Past Events
24
Jun
2006
20:00
Royal Theatre