Sherie Julianne - 10 Degrees South (2014)

Sherie Julianne’s path to singing Brazilian music took many unexpected turns—from a musical childhood in Miami to studying and teaching dance in San Francisco to working over the last decade with her mentor Marcos Silva at the Jazzschool in Berkeley. Silva, a native of Rio de Janeiro, is also Julianne’s collaborator on the singer’s ravishing debut, "10 Degrees South."

“I can’t explain exactly what it was but I fell completely, totally, and utterly in love with Brazilian music and started listening to it all the time,” Julianne says. “I’m American, not Brazilian, and I wanted to find music that fits my personality, that speaks to my American roots, while being immersed in Brazilian rhythms.”

Julianne possesses a translucent honey-amber voice ideally suited for the lithe and flowing melodies that distinguish so many Brazilian standards. Her supple sense of time and her facility at brisk tempos makes her a double threat, emotionally incisive on ballads and fearless on breakneck arrangements. She’s joined by a superlative cast of musicians, including master pianist/arranger Marcos Silva, who’s worked extensively with a long list of Brazilian and American jazz musicians, Leny Andrade and Flora Purim and Airto among them; veteran saxophonist/flutist Mary Fettig; and the dynamic rhythm section tandem of drummer Phil Thompson and bassist Scott Thompson (no relation). Ace guitarist Jeff Buenz, who has performed and recorded with the great Brazilian jazz vocalist Claudia Villela, rounds out the ensemble.