Happy Birthday Joyce Moreno!

Celebrating the 76th birthday of legendary Brazilian singer/songwriter Joyce Moreno with a few stellar performances.

Watch Joyce Moreno play "Natureza" at the Blue Note in Tokyo

Here's Joyce's swingin' performance of "Natureza," the title track of the album she cut with Claus Ogerman in NYC back in 1977.

You can get a copy of Joyce's "Natureza" album via Bandcamp right here. 

Joyce's 'lost' 1977 album Natureza set for digital release Sept 30

Joyce's New York recording with Nana Vasconcelos, Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell and Buster Williams is finally being released. 

Here's the scoop from Far Out Recordings...

Not long after the dawn of her career, as a teenager in Rio de Janeiro, Joyce was declared “one of the greatest singers” by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Yet despite reputable accolades and the fact that she has since recorded over thirty acclaimed albums, Joyce never quite achieved the international recognition of the likes of Jobim, João Gilberto and Sergio Mendes, all of whom became global stars after releasing with major labels in the US.

There was a moment when it seemed Joyce might be on the cusp of an international breakthrough. While living in New York, she was approached by the great German producer Claus Ogerman. Ogerman had already played a pivotal role in the development and popularization of Brazilian music in the 1960s, recording with some of the all-time greats like Jobim and João Gilberto, as well as North American idols like Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Bill Evans.

“I met him in New York City, in 1977,” recalls Joyce. “I was living and playing there, and João Palma, Brazilian drummer who used to play with Jobim, introduced me to Claus. We had an audition, he liked what we were doing and decided to produce an album with us.”

Featuring fellow Brazilian musicians Mauricio Maestro (who wrote/co-wrote four of the songs), Nana Vasconcelos and Tutty Moreno, and some of the most in-demand stateside players including Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell and Buster Williams, the recordings for Natureza took place at Columbia Studios and Ogerman produced the album, provided the arrangements and conducted the orchestra.

But mysteriously, Natureza was never released, and what should have been Joyce’s big moment never happened. As Joyce remembers, “I returned home, but Claus and I remained in contact, by letters and phone calls. He was very enthusiastic about the album and tried to hook me up with Michael Franks. He wanted me to go back to NYC in order to re-record the vocals in English with new lyrics, which I actually wasn’t too happy about. But then I got pregnant with my third child and could not leave Brazil. And little by little our contact became rare, until I lost track of him completely. And that was it. I never heard from him again.”

While Claus was known to be something of an elusive character, the album’s disappearance might also have been a result of timing. The Brazilian craze was coming to an end, making way for disco and new wave at the end of the seventies, and Ogerman struggled to find a major label interested in his new Brazilian sensation. Additionally, as Joyce mentions, it wasn’t quite finished. Ogerman wanted to add finishing touches to the mix and to record alternative English lyrics for the US and international markets - a critical artistic difference between Joyce and Ogerman.

As the military dictatorship’s grip on Brazil began to subside in the 1980s, Joyce had a handful of hits in her home county, including a tribute to her daughters ‘Clareana’, and the iconic ‘Feminina’ - an intergenerational conversation between mother and daughter about what it means to be a woman. But already a feminist pioneer, these successes were hard fought. Joyce had caused controversy as a nineteen-year-old when she became the first in Brazil to sing from the first-person feminine perspective, and the institutional sexism she faced was worsened by the dictatorship who would often censor her music. Even once the Junta was out of the way, Joyce found herself up against the male-dominated major record companies in Brazil, who sought to dictate her career and sexualise her image, before dropping her for refusing to play along.

A few years after the success of her albums Feminina and Agua E Luz in Brazil, Joyce’s music began to find its way to the UK, Europe and Japan, and ‘Feminina’ and ‘Aldeia de Ogum’ became classics on the underground jazz-dance scenes of the mid to late-eighties and early-nineties.

The full-length version of ‘Feminina’ from the Natureza sessions was first heard on a Brazilian Jazz compilation in 1999 and ‘Descompassadamente’ was licensed for a CD compiling the work of Claus Ogerman in 2002. Following these, word began to get out about an unreleased Joyce album with Claus Ogerman and the legend of Natureza grew.

Forty-five years since it was recorded, Natureza finally sees the light of day, with Joyce’s Portuguese lyrics and vocals, as she intended. Featuring the fabled 11-minute version of ‘Feminina’, as well as the never before heard ‘Coração Sonhador’ composed and performed by Mauricio Maestro, Natureza’s release is a landmark in Brazilian music history and represents a triumphant, if overdue victory for Joyce as an outspoken female artist who has consistently refused to bow to patriarchal pressure.

***Disclaimer! While “Feminina” and “Descompassadamente’’ were mixed by legendary engineer Al Schmitt and mastered from the original master tapes, the remaining five tracks are unmixed. Due to significant deterioration of the master-tapes, the best audio source for these tracks was an unmixed tape copy Joyce had kept of the recordings. The best care has been taken in the restoration and mastering of this release, but the sound quality may differ from other releases on Far Out Recordings. We advise listening to sound clips before buying where possible.

Natureza will be released digitally on September 30th, followed by the physical release (vinyl & cd) on October 28th. Pre-order Natureza via Bandcamp right here. Listen to “Descompassadamente’’ below. 

Release of Joyce's "lost" Natureza album announced with "Feminina" RSD single

Joyce Moreno's previously unissued 11+ minute version of "Feminina" was cut in NYC with producer Claus Ogerman in 1977.  

Here's the scoop....

This fabled 11 minute+ version of Brazilian icon Joyce's groundbreaking "Feminina" was recorded at Columbia Studios, New York in 1977, for the as yet unreleased Natureza album. Produced, arranged and conducted by the great Claus Ogerman (Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Billie Holiday... the list goes on), Natureza would have ostensibly been Joyce's big break to international stardom, but mysteriously, it was never released. With Joyce came fellow Brazilian icon Mauricio Maestro, while Nana Vasconcelos and Tutty Moreno were already living in New York, and Ogerman employed North American jazz legends Joe Farrell, Michael Brecker, Buster Williams, Mike Manieri and a full orchestra for the sessions.

In anticipation of the monumental forthcoming Natureza album release via Far Out Recordings, this astonishing version of a true classic gets its first proper 12" vinyl release for Record Store Day 2022. In the spirit of making the release special for Record Store Day, rather than leave it as a single sided 12", Far Out boss called up Joyce to talk about the recording, recorded the conversation, and got it pressed onto the B-side. Listen to "Feminina" below. 

Writes Joyce: 

"This version of "Feminina" is part of Natureza, an album I recorded with the legendary Claus Ogerman in 1977 and it's still unreleased. This first single will be released on a 12' vinyl, on the A side with the full version of the music (with more than 11 minutes) and on the B side with an interview Joe Davis did with me in November 2011. The album was recorded at Columbia Studios, New York, featuring Brazilian and American musicians, and since then it has become a legend of my discography."

Credits: 

Joyce Moreno - lead vocals, lead guitar

Mauricio Maestro - background guitar and backing vocals

Buster Williams - acoustic bass

João Palma - drums

Naná Vasconcelos - percussion

Tutty Moreno - percussion

Mike Manieri - vibes

Warren Bernhardt - keyboards

Joe Farrell - flute solo

Phil Bodner, Romeo Penque, George Marge, Don Hammond, Ray Beckstein - bass flutes

Produced, arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman

Recorded by Frank Laico at Columbia Studios, NYC, 1977

Mixed by Al Schmitt

Mastered by Pete Norman @ Finyl Tweek

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