Joyce Moreno in Berlin
Brazilian singer, songwriter, guitarist, and arranger Joyce Moreno was in town yesterday. The legendary artist, whose first album “Joyce” from 1968 was recently re-released, and who is clearly one of the most important figures in the Bossa Nova, Samba, and MPB scenes of the last 50+ years, performed parts of her lengthy repertoire last night at Emmauskirche in Kreuzberg. She included a few Brazilian standards, like “Águas De Março” or “Desafinado”. And she also included some of the more than 400 songs she wrote over the years, most notably “Feminina”, the important socio-political tune which came out in 1980. An earlier version, which she recorded in 1977, came out two years ago on the London-based Far Out Recordings, for which she records since the late 90s: on “Natureza”, she is joined by Mauricio Maestro and select US studio musicians, with production duties by Claus Ogerman.
Alas, the sound in the church was excrutiatingly hard to bear. The high ceiling just swallowed everything up. The individual instruments were sometimes not distinguishable. I couldn’t understand a single word when she was talking between songs. I’ve tried several positions in the church to maybe pick up the best sound, but it was a fruitless endeavor. Which was a shame of course, given the fact that here was an artist of such immense importance and style.
