Friday, January 22: Brazilian music, breezy and carefree, is a wonderful antidote to the coldest, darkest days of winter, so we headed over to Sanders Theatre after dinner in Harvard Square to enjoy the remarkable trio of Luciana Souza, vocals, Romero Lubambo, guitar and Cyro Baptista, percussion. How to explain their uniqueness? Well, many singers clearly exert themselves, and "sing" on purpose; they clearly do something, and that thing is singing. On the other hand, Luciana appears to just stand there, and allows music to flow out of her. Sweet, mellifluous tones freely floated into our lucky ears... 

As in flamenco, there is complexity of harmony, rhythm and melody in this music, yet it is easily accessible to the listener. Toe-tapping rhythms and lovely melodies abound. In the opening number, an almost Schubertian alternation between major and minor tonalities was enhanced by Cyro's well-balanced percussion. Luciana sang poetry she had set to music, a truly synergistic combination. We were treated to Dindi, sung in Portugese, Tide, from her Grammy-nominated album by the same name, and Paul Simon's Amulet, a song without words. Romero's exceptional guitar was an ideal complement to her voice. He and Luciana unleashed several astonishingly long and intricate jazz lines - in perfect unison!

Then, Romero and Luciana left the stage, leaving us alone with Cyro. A wild and wacky percussion solo ensued, complete with berimbau and plenty of artful subtlety. Cyro made us chuckle by placing various types of jocular exclamation points at the end of phrases. His giant caxixi were delightful; his novel cuica playing in the guitar duo encore was also quite special.

Touches of humor and good nature were sprinkled throughout the performance. Luciana's supple voice, often transforming into a wind instrument, maintained surgical precision in both rhythm and pitch. Her gorgeous diminuendos on final notes of songs were flawlessly in tune. And imagine, all this pure musicality and colorful tone production was magically unencumbered by any appearance of effort! What a beautiful, fun and amazing show. If you are ever given an opportunity to hear this extraordinary trio, go for it!