With his soft and breezy modern bossa nova, critically acclaimed musician and composer Sessa breathes new life into Brazilian pop music. With comparisons to legends such as the pioneering bossa nova figure Antônio Carlos Jobim and tropicalia icon Caetano Veloso, Sessa effortlessly and sensually blends the heritage of bossa nova with influences from free jazz, psyched-out retro orchestration and sparse singer-songwriting in the style of Leonard Cohen. A must for fans of Brazilian music. Radio host and Brazilian music connoisseur Jonas Visti will be spinning vinyls before the show.

Sessa is a long-time fixture of both the American and Brazilian music scenes. Initially known for collaborating with NY guitar legend Yonatan Gat and co-founding the São Paulo psych-funk combo Garotas Suecas, Sessa released his debut album, Grandeza, in 2019. In their review of the album, the New Yorker described Sessa as “a songwriter cut from Veloso’s mold and blessed with a flair for the intimate, the enigmatic, and the licentious.”

Sessa’s songs are sung in Portuguese, with visceral, sensual lyrics, and melodic flourishes not unlike those of Tom Jobim. However, the music gets a deliberate minimalist treatment rarely found in contemporary Brazilian music, more reminiscent of the bareness of Leonard Cohen.

Sessa’s concerts are already stuff of legend, as he takes the stage accompanied solely by a female backing choir and Afro-Brazilian percussion. While the songs often deal with subjects such as the sensual body and spiritual transcendence, the music points to new, more subtle directions for Brazilian pop music – a deep, minimalist, almost insinuated use of the endlessly rich textures and rhythms that define the songwriting history of Brazil, which Sessa joins as one of its most promising new voices.

“Sensual and subtly orchestrated post bossa from the latter day Tom Ze” (Uncut)

“Sergio Sayeg’s unhurried nylon string guitar and softly danceable rhythms put a smooth, minimalist flourish on the vibrant musical heritage of Brazil” (Pitchfork)

“Sessa, a São Paulo native, purrs sinuous ballads that evaporate immediately into the ether. Like his singer-songwriter touchstones, both Brazilian and Leonard Cohenian, he cultivates an air of inscrutability and depth” (The New Yorker)