Claudia Villela

Artist Description

"The closest the jazz world is likely to ever come to a female Bobby McFerrin, the Brazilian-born genius with the blistering five-octave range is expertly skilled at working without a net."
- Jazz Times

"Remarkable, beautiful, towering voice"
- The New York Times

Claudia Villela is recognized as one of the top Brazilian singers/ composers living in the United States and for this rare New York appearance she will present new songs commissioned by the Fundación Cisneros and inspired by texts from Latin American poets active during the late 1960s and 1970s. Her CD "Inverse Universe," recorded with the virtuoso Brazilian guitarist Ricardo Peixoto, prompted Jazz Times to call them "arguably the most interesting postmillennial interpreters of Brazilian jazz." Named "a thrilling improvisor" by Down Beat, Villela will be accompanied by Peixoto and a ensemble of world-class musicians including Ricardo Peixoto on guitar, Rogerio Boccato on drums and percussion, Itaiguara Brandao on bass, Dario Eskenazi on piano and Rodrigo Ursaia on woodwinds

Supported by a generous grant from the Fundación Cisneros, this program is organized in conjunction with exhibition The Geometry of Hope: Latin American Abstract Art from the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, on view at the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, September 12-December 8, 2007.