"I was proud to see Brazil give a fruit to an album like this, at a time when Brazil needs to understand itself, to recognize itself." (Monica Salmaso, Brazilian singer, January 2019)
"A love note from a singer to Brazil" (Songlines Magazine, July 2019)
"With a playful flair (...) a vigorous samba gives lightness to an album set in the sometimes dense atmosphere of the Brazilian song that resists the pressure of the phonographic industry "(Mauro Ferreira, G1, March 2019)
Noites Brasileiras, an independent album recorded in Rio de Janeiro and released in February 2019, brings together 12 never published before compositions performed by the Brazilian music and jazz singer, Gabriela Kozyra. She selected the repertoire in a loving mission of revealing hidden treasures of the new Brazilian songbook. The album counts with the participation of the composers themselves as arrangers and instrumentalists. Among them is an extraordinary guitarist and composer Guinga, who accompanies Gabi in the waltz Noites Brasileiras, which gave the album its title.
Gabriela is not a newcomer. For more than 10 years she has performed on the stages of European jazz festivals and jazz houses. In 2010, she immersed herself in the vast universe of Brazilian music when she lived in Rio de Janeiro and studied Choro and Samba at the Escola Portátil de Música. It was there, she met many of the musicians and composers of the songs found in her first album. According to the renowned Brazilian singer Monica Salmaso, Gabriela presents a beautiful and mature work…that is "a Brazilian trip of the highest quality" where "exquisite songs of new and important composers [are] treated properly and sung with precision and much love."
Together with some formidable musicians, Luiz Morais (guitar), Rachel Heyter (flute) and Adriano Adewale (percussion ), she brings the album to London audiences with the mission to reveal how much more there is to Brazilian music than Bossa Nova or the carnival Samba.
