Luciana Souza by Gabriel Rinaldi

Tonight’s performance finds Brazilian-born Grammy-winner Luciana Souza teamed up with California guitarist Larry Koonse and Toronto-born multi-genre bassist David Piltch.

No stranger to collaborations of this nature, vocalist Souza has worked with genre-crossing luminaries like Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, Argentinian classical composer Osvaldo Golijov and James Taylor. Her longstanding duo work with guitarist Romero Lubambo has earned her accolades across the globe.

Her recent August releases on Sunnyside Records – The Book of Chet and Duos III – offer Souza’s personal and masterful singing in homage to Chet Baker and traditional songs from the Brazilian repertoire with three master guitarists, including Lubambo. As a leader, Souza has eight acclaimed releases, including four Grammy-nominated records. Her complete discography contains more than 50 records as a side singer. In 2005, Luciana was awarded Female Jazz Singer of the Year, by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Souza is a Berklee College of Music graduate and a master’s degree holder in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music. She’s taught at the Manhattan School of Music and at Berklee. From 2005 to 2010, Souza was the Jazz Artist in Residence with the prestigious San Francisco Performances.

Hailing from São Paulo, Brazil, Souza grew up in a family of bossa nova innovators; it comes as no surprise that her work as a performer transcends traditional boundaries around musical styles.

Dave Peck by Tim Rounds

Pacific Northwest pianist Dave Peck is known for his introspective style and lush harmonic coloring. His award-winning albums Trio, Solo, 3 and 1, Out of Seattle, Good Road and Modern Romance are radio and critical favorites. The Dave Peck Trio includes the brilliant Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame bassist Jeff Johnson, along with the Los Angeles drum standout Joe LaBarbera. Both rhythmic and romantic, the trio uses the standard repertoire as a framework for new composition and form. Their work is rich, intuitive and harmonically complex with a unique, signature sound.

Coda Magazine praises Peck as “Introspective and astute … lush and deeply attentive … warm, adept and perfectly subtle with enormous craft.” DownBeat describes his playing as “lyrical and pastel, swinging and bluesy, with a ringing crystalline touch.”

Peck has appeared on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz, Jazz After Hours, NPR’s Jazz Alive, VH1 and CBC Television. He has performed with some of the great jazz artists of our time, including Bud Shank, Chet Baker, Joe Williams and Freddie Hubbard.

– DB