Joyce Moreno is like the Joni Mitchell of Brazil, a singular, multi-talented paragon of feminine musical energy. Unapologetically independent, Joyce is a masterful guitar player, angelic vocalist and inspired composer who’s blazed her own musical trail since her start in the music business in the sixties as an outspoken singer-songwriter. Since her rediscovery by Gilles Peterson and other British DJs in the nineties, her reputation as a performer and recording artist has only grown. Despite her singular talents, she’s always surrounded herself with talented musical partners such as Vinicius de Moraes, (ex-husband) Nelson Angelo, Naná Vasconcelos, Claus Ogerman, her forever musical and life partner Tutty Moreno and, of course, João Donato.

Don’t ask for footnotes, but Brazil has more phenomenal drummers per-capita than any other country in the world, and Tutty Moreno is at the top of the list of best drummers that country has to offer. Unlike the above two cariocas (Rio natives), Tutty Moreno is from Salvador, Bahia where most of Africa’s involuntary immigrants first landed during Brazil’s slave trade. Exposed from an early age to the rhythms of mother Africa, Tutty absorbed the fluid and sacred rhythms and has been translating them into the modern idiom of Brazilian pop music for over five decades being the go-to drummer for Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Jards Macalé, Maria Bethania and his wife since the late seventies, Joyce Moreno.