Lica Cecato

Brazilian singer and guitarist Lica Cecato combines poetry, dance, and visual art with her multilingual-oriented jazz sounds. The daughter of a saxophonist and granddaughter of a conductor, her music career first showed promise in 1985, when she earned a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music as well as their Sarah Vaughan Award. Cecato's first album as bandleader, a duo outing with Italian guitarist Stefano Scutari called Our Favorite Songs, arrived seven years later. In 1994, she contributed to the compilation Music of the World, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Her first album to be released in Brazil, Constelário, followed in 2001, and was produced by Júnior Aguiar, featured guests such as Brazilian jazz guitarist Romero Lubambo, and garnered a Latin Grammy nomination. Lubambo appeared with Cecato once more in 2003 for a live recording, and in the following years she kept a busy schedule with festival appearances and art exhibits in virtually every corner of the globe.