Monica Vasconcelos

On Sunday night I saw Monica Vasconcelos at Ronnie Scotts in Soho. She is a singer and songwriter, based in the UK, but from Brazil.
Monica has a great voice and she sings with quite an infectuous sound. Nois the band are all quite talented and through them you get involved in the music. I was in Sao Paulo a few years ago and the feeling is similar, you want to be part of the show, rather than just in the audience. Lots of people were clapping along with the percussion on Sunday.
They play a good mixture of sounds ranging from their own material to covers of 60s and 70s Brazillian classics. Basically it is music to feel good to, relax and enjoy it.
She has two albums available, the first Nois is mainly Brazillian music and is sung in Portuguese, which makes for melodic and precussive sounds. They mix the different music styles from Brazil with European and Latin Jazz sounds.
Their latest ablum, Oferenda is also good, a bit more polished and has some songs sung in English, see this short review on the BBCi music site or listen to this short clip (30 seconds RealAudio).