Stephen Johnson and Vanessa Falabella | Nu~Bossa Elixir~s
(Movita Records)
Decades ago, bossa nova expanded its sonic palette beyond “The Girl from Ipanema” to include a host of other influences, including jazz, Tropicalia, and Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB). Kingston’s Stephen Johnson and Vanessa Falabella push the limits of bossa nova into Nu Bossa territory, integrating influences from other world musics as well as a fusion of traditional sounds played on wooden instruments with contemporary sounds played on keyboards, accordion, guitar, and bass. With the expert mixing assistance of Malcolm Burn (Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Bob Dylan), multi-instrumentalist Johnson and Falabella swap vocals on original compositions of political and social import alongside bossa classics by the likes of Gilberto Gil, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Joao Donato.
This article appears in January 2025.
