Joyce

Joyce Moreno, long known professionally simply as Joyce, ranks among Brazil’s most celebrated vocalists, songwriters, arrangers, and guitarists. Antônio Carlos Jobim once called her “one of the greatest singers,” and her style fuses refined elegance with immediate warmth while moving freely among samba, bossa nova, MPB, jazz, and regional Brazilian traditions. In 1967 her composition “Me Disseram” ignited nationwide debate as the first Brazilian song written by a woman in the first-person feminine voice. Across a recording career that has produced more than thirty-five albums and roughly four hundred original pieces, many of her works have been interpreted by leading international artists. The 1980 release Feminina endures as a landmark for its exuberant portrayal of womanhood; the later award-winning albums Água e Luz and Tardes Cariocas extended that same perspective. During the 1990s, Verve issued Music Inside and Línguas e Amores, while European DJs and producers introduced her earlier catalog to fresh listeners. In 1996 she joined the London label Far Out Recordings, which reissued Tardes Cariocas and triggered a worldwide effort to restore her back catalog. Subsequent Far Out projects—Hard Bossa in 1998, Gafeira Moderna in 2001, Just a Little Bit Crazy in 2004, and Samba Jazz & Outras Bossa in 2007—each received widespread praise. Raiz, released in 2015, revisited bossa and samba standards, whereas Cool, issued the following year, explored American jazz repertoire. Fiz Uma Viagem appeared in 2020 as a tribute to Dori Caymmi’s songbook. In 2021 she joined Ivan Lins and Marcos Valle for the single “Casa Que Era Minha,” and 2022 brought the belated release of Natureza, a previously unheard 1977 collaboration with Claus Ogerman.

Born Joyce Silveira Palhano de Jesus in Rio de Janeiro on 31 January 1948, she was placed in the care of her mother’s first husband shortly after her parents separated and grew up with his two older sons. Her childhood unfolded in Zona Sul, specifically Posto Seis in Copacabana, and she attended the Catholic Colégio São Paulo in Ipanema. At fourteen she taught herself guitar by observing her older brother Newton, a bank teller and law graduate who had become an accomplished player and close associate of bossa nova figures such as Roberto Menescal and Eumir Deodato. Their home regularly welcomed musicians including Luiz Carlos Vinhas, Leny Andrade, and the Castro Neves brothers; through these encounters the adolescent Joyce absorbed the evolving currents of bossa nova.

Menescal first encountered her voice on a cassette in 1964 and invited her into the vocal ensemble Conjunto Sambacana, where she cut her initial studio sides at sixteen. The next year she passed the entrance examination for journalism studies at PUC-Rio and began formal lessons with Jodacil Damaceno on classical guitar and technique and with Wilma Graça in theory and voice. While still enrolled, she submitted “Me Disseram” to the II Festival Internacional da Canção in Rio in 1967; its opening lines—“They already told me / that my man doesn’t love me”—provoked intense controversy because Brazilian popular song had never before featured such explicitly feminine first-person narration. Numerous male critics labeled the nineteen-year-old composer “vulgar and immoral,” yet Nelson Motta and Fernando Lobo defended her “feminist posture.” Joyce maintained that she was simply writing from her own gender perspective in the manner of her idols Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf and refused any alteration. In doing so she inadvertently created an enduring precedent in Brazilian music.

Philips released her self-titled debut, Joyce, in 1968. Armando Pittigliani produced the sessions, Gaya and Dori Caymmi handled arrangements, and Vinicius de Moraes contributed the liner notes. Five of the tracks were her own compositions; six came from peers including Marcos Valle, Caetano Veloso, Toninho Horta, and Ronaldo Bastos. The album failed to chart largely because it contained the still-controversial “Me Disseram.” Encontro Marcado followed in 1969, again involving Caymmi, Gaya, and Luiz Eça of Tamba Trio; although now regarded as a landmark, it likewise sold modestly at the time.

She earned her journalism degree from PUC-Rio in 1970. That same year she spent two months in Mexico as a member of Eça’s group Sagrada Familia, performing nightly at the Hotel Camino Real. Upon returning she married bandmate and composer Nelson Angelo. Between 1970 and 1971 she performed with Angelo, Novelli, Toninho Horta, and Naná Vasconcelos in the ensemble A Tribo, which recorded the EP Posições for EMI/Odeon. After signing directly with the label in 1972 she collaborated with her husband on Nelson Ângelo & Joyce. Motherhood arrived in 1971, and she devoted the ensuing years primarily to raising her children.

The couple separated at the end of 1974. The following year Vinícius de Moraes asked her to replace guitarist Toquinho on tour; she performed so effectively that de Moraes retained her after Toquinho’s return. During those travels she met Italian producer Sérgio Bardotti, who subsequently oversaw her 1976 album Passarinho Urbano, a collection of songs by Brazilian composers then censored by the military regime, among them Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, Caetano Veloso, Edu Lobo, and de Moraes.

In 1977 Joyce relocated temporarily to New York for a six-month residency. There she recorded the album Natureza with composer Maurício Maestro; Claus Ogerman produced and arranged the sessions, which featured American jazz musicians Michael Brecker, Buster Williams, and Joe Farrell. The project remained unreleased at the time, yet it introduced two of her signature originals, “Feminina” and “Mysteries.” By 1979 she had met jazz drummer Tutty Moreno during another New York engagement; the pair fell in love and resettled in Rio. At that point her compositions were already being covered by Milton Nascimento, Elis Regina, Maria Bethânia, Nana Caymmi, and Quarteto em Cy. EMI-Odeon consequently offered her a new recording contract.

Her song “Clareana,” written as a lullaby for her daughters, was entered in the 1980 Brazilian Popular Music Festival televised by TV Globo. That year also saw the release of Feminina. Its title track and “Clareana” became defining singles; the album’s first-person narratives delivered an intimate, multifaceted portrait of feminine experience. Unlike the 1960s backlash, Feminina achieved immediate commercial and radio success, earning Joyce her first substantial positive press coverage and becoming an international success that inspired numerous subsequent female artists.

The 1980s proved exceptionally active. Água e Luz appeared in 1981 and yielded the Top Ten single “Monsieur Binot.” In 1983 she founded her own Feminina label and released Tardes Cariocas, which received the Chiquinha Gonzaga award for best independent album. Saudade do Futuro, issued in 1985, reached the Top Ten and featured Milton Nascimento on the hit “Tema Para Jobim.” She also participated in tribute projects: Wilson Batista: Samba Foi Sua Glória in 1986, Tom Jobim: Anos 60 in 1987, and Negro Mais no Coração, a Vinicius de Moraes homage, in 1988. The decade closed with the live album Joyce Live and festival appearances in Moscow, Japan, France, and Belgium.

International demand prompted two Verve releases. Music Inside, recorded in 1990 with Kenny Werner and Marvin “Smitty” Smith, and Línguas e Amores, cut the following year with Gil Goldstein, Bob Mintzer, Jon Hendricks, and Tutty Moreno, both charted in Europe. Throughout the 1990s the European “new bossa” and “drum’n’bossa” scenes championed her earlier work; DJs such as Gilles Peterson, Nicola Conte, and Gerardo Frisina regularly featured her vintage recordings alongside contemporary electronic beats.

Revendo Amigos, a 1994 anthology of her songs performed by other artists, was followed by the intimate samba collection Delírios De Orfeu, arranged by Mario Adnet. She appeared at Carnegie Hall in an international tribute to the recently deceased Jobim. Ilha Brasil, her first album of entirely new material in several years, emerged in 1996. That same year she performed at the Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards in New York alongside Liza Minnelli, Tony Bennett, and James Brown. Far Out’s Joe Davis licensed and reissued Tardes Cariocas, exposing the album to a new audience, and signed her for future recordings.

In 1997 she published the memoir Fotografei Você na Minha Rolleyflex with MultiMais Editorial, offering personal recollections of the MPB era; the book garnered strong reviews and led to a weekly column in the newspaper O’Dia that continued for two years. The decade ended with two further acclaimed projects: the 1998 tribute Astronauta: Canções de Elis on Blue Jackel, recorded with Joe Lovano, Mulgrew Miller, and Renee Rosnes and featuring her own “Samba Pra Elis” written with Paulo César Pinheiro, and Hard Bossa, her first Far Out album of new material, which launched an international resurgence. Her compositions increasingly appeared in film and television scores, including the American features The Player and Legally Blonde, as well as on club playlists.

The new century opened with continued productivity. Tudo Bonito, released on Sony in 2000, marked the first of several collaborations with pianist and composer João Donato. Gafieira Moderna followed in 2001 on Far Out and Biscoito Fino. After decades of common-law partnership, Joyce and Tutty Moreno married that year and honeymooned while touring; she also began performing and recording under the name Joyce Moreno.

Bossa Duets appeared on Sony in 2003. The global success of Just a Little Bit Crazy, recorded with Bugge Wesseltoft and Banda Maluca and issued by Far Out outside Brazil and by Biscoito Fino domestically, prompted a live DVD of the subsequent tour. In 2004 she received the Lifetime Achievement International Press Award, a U.S. honor recognizing Brazilians who promote a positive image of the country abroad. Rio-Bahia, a joint project with Dori Caymmi, came out on Far Out in 2005. Magica, issued in 2006, marked the first co-billed release with Tutty Moreno; Samba-Jazz & Outras Bossas followed in 2007. The live package Ao Vivo appeared the next year. In May 2008 she curated the “50 Years of Bossa Nova” concerts at London’s Barbican Centre, performing alongside both veteran figures—Roberto Menescal, Wanda Sá, Carlos Lyra, Marcos Valle, João Donato, and Dori Caymmi—and newer artists such as Celso Fonseca, her daughter Clara Moreno, and Vinicius Cantuária.

Four albums appeared in 2009. Far Out released the archival Visions of Dawn, a long-unheard 1976 Paris session with Naná Vasconcelos and Maurício Maestro. Celebrating Jobim, recorded with the WDR Big Band in 2007, surfaced exclusively in Japan. Aquarius paired her once more with Donato and was issued by Japan’s Toy Factory. Slow Music, a ballad collection, appeared internationally in 2010 and earned a Grammy nomination.

An expanded edition of her memoir, now titled Aquelas Coisas Todas Musica Encontros Ideias, was published in January 2010. She maintained an intensive touring schedule and served as music director and performer for the television series No Compasso da História, whose fifteen documentary films traced Brazilian history through popular song. She also began recording the solo guitar-and-voice project Rio de Janeiro, released by Far Out in 2011; alongside standards about the city it included her earliest composition, “Meu Rio,” written at fourteen, and the samba “Puro Ouro” dedicated to Bamba Cariocas.

Tudo, issued by Far Out in 2013, presented bossas, sambas, and jazz ballads performed by her trio with Tutty Moreno and pianist Hélio Alves. In January 2015 Raiz celebrated fifty years in music with a program of bossa and samba classics; Roberto Menescal joined her for readings of his “O Barquinho” and “Nós e O Mar.” Cool, recorded with the trio and bassist Rodolfo Stroeter, offered twelve American standards sung primarily in Portuguese. Poesia, a 2016 duo album with Kenny Werner on the Pirouet label, comprised thirteen intimate American and Brazilian ballads. That same year Palavra E Som, containing thirteen originals and co-writes, appeared first on Japan’s Rambling Records and subsequently on Biscoito Fino; Dori Caymmi guested on “Dia Lindo.” In 2018 she collaborated with singer-guitarist Alfredo Del-Penho on Argumento: Canções de Sidney Miller Ao Vivo No IMS for the Karup label, documenting a concert revisiting twelve compositions by the late composer, producer, and curator Sidney Miller. Also in 2018, at age seventy, she released 50, a track-by-track re-recording of her 1968 debut featuring guest appearances by Marcos Valle, Zélia Duncan, Francis Hime, Toninho Horta, Menescal, and others associated with the original sessions.

Biscoito Fino reissued Fiz Uma Viagem (Songs for Dori Caymmi) in 2020; the set, originally recorded for Rambling Records in 2017, received favorable notices throughout Brazil, South America, Europe, and American jazz publications. In May 2021 she joined Ivan Lins and Marcos Valle for the single “Casa Que Era Minha.” Far Out issued Natureza in 2022, finally releasing the 1977 Ogerman collaboration recorded in New York with Nana Vasconcelos, Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell, Maurício Maestro, Buster Williams, Tutty Moreno, Mike Manieri, Warren Bernhardt, and an orchestra conducted by Ogerman; its opening track is a nearly twelve-minute rendition of “Feminina.”