For bossa nova, he loves NY

Though Brazil is one of the largest countries in the world, it's not so vast that it can claim New York City as an outpost.

But for singer-songwriter and guitarist Vinicius Cantuaria, relocating to Brooklyn in 1994 made him feel more deeply Brazilian than he ever felt in Rio de Janeiro. Steeped in the gentle cadences, transparent textures, and modern jazz harmonies of bossa nova, his music is unmistakably Brazilian, but his sound seamlessly embraces a myriad of influences.

Since the release of his first US album in 1996, ''Sol Na Cara," which was produced by guitarist Arto Lindsay and features arrangements by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Cantuaria has been drinking deeply from Gotham's overflowing pool of talent, collaborating with artists such as David Byrne, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, guitarist Bill Frisell, pianist Brad Mehldau, and violinist Jenny Scheinman. It's as if he's created a Brazilian island of his own in New York and invited a cast of creative castaways to join him.

The 54-year-old Cantuaria performs two Valentine's shows at the Regattabar on Tuesday with a quintet featuring jazz bassist Paul Socolow, drummer Adriano Santos, percussionist Marivaldo Dos Santos, and trumpeter Michael Leonhart, who has toured widely with Steely Dan.

''When I chose New York, I didn't know whether the city would give me the opportunity to do something, but these days I know," Cantuaria says in a phone conversation from Los Angeles. ''I'm living in the United States to be more Brazilian. In the United States I can focus more on Brazil, not only music, but architecture, movies, politics. Living far from your country, you see better what's happening."

Part of the problem for Cantuaria was that in Brazil he had become a known quantity enmeshed in the country's huge music industry. He first gained attention in the mid-1970s as the founder of the rock band O Terco, but his career really took off later in the decade when Caetano Veloso hired him as the drummer for his group A Outra Banda Da Terra.

While at first denounced by critics, the band recorded a series of popular albums, including Veloso's first million sellers, ''Outras palavras" (''Other words") and ''Cores, nomes" (''Colors, names"). It was Cantuaria who wrote the 1981 hit ''Lua e Estrela" (''Moon and Star"), the song that transformed Veloso from a revered musical visionary into a genuine Brazilian pop star.

''When I wrote 'Lua,' I never could imagine that kind of success," Cantuaria says. ''It changed my life, but not my way of doing the music. More people knew me, I had more opportunities to show things to people. But in Brazil when I tried to do something new it was so difficult. People are always asking me about new songs, commercial songs for different singers. It's difficult when you're part of the game."

While he's continued to write hits for Brazilian artists, Cantuaria has found a measure of creative freedom in the United States that eluded him at home. Over the past decade, he's released a series of gorgeous albums, though he has never surpassed the sublime lyricism of 1999's ''Tucuma," a session that pairs his poetic Portuguese lyrics and ringing acoustic guitar chords with Erik Friedlander's translucent cello, Peter Apfelbaum's brawny tenor saxophone, and Joey Baron's delicate drums.

His latest album, ''Silva" (Hannibal/Rykodisc), surrounds his murmuring vocals with Eduardo Souto Neto's elegant arrangements for the Bessler String Quartet, a seductive reimagining of the bossa nova sound. Although the style has been largely eclipsed in Brazil since the mid-1960s, bossa nova has undergone something of a revival in recent years, powered by groove-hungry European DJs and neo-bossa nova artists like Bebel Gilberto and Bossacucanova's Marcio Menescal, who have largely replaced deft syncopated guitar patterns with electronic beats.

''In the last 10 years, bossa nova has grown a lot," Cantuaria says. ''But for me it's a little confused, because young people make a relationship between bossa nova and electronic music. My point of view is a little bit different. I make bossa nova with the old chords, the old Brazilian idea, but of course, I live in New York and I exchange experiences with different musicians. For me, my bossa is not nova. I make bossa nova, and the atmosphere is contemporary."

In recent years, Cantuaria has gained widespread exposure through his work with guitarist Bill Frisell's stylistically polyglot ensemble the Intercontinentals, which also features a Malian percussionist, a Greek-born string player on oud and bouzouki, and Brooklyn-based violinist Jenny Scheinman. Besides their work together in Frisell's band, Scheinman has toured widely with Cantuaria, soloing brilliantly throughout his two-disc album ''Live: Skirball Cultural Center 8/7/03."

''His music is unknowable and totally accessible all at the same time," Scheinman says. ''I don't know how those Brazilians do it. They manage to make all this lushness and complexity sound like pop music, and he's the real master of that. On tour we'd be playing these tunes that I could barely transcribe, and the whole audience would be singing along."

If there's an element of mystery in Cantuaria's music, perhaps it stems from his passion for Miles Davis, whom he cites as a primary source of inspiration along with pianist Bill Evans, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, and trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker (a touchstone for bossa nova progenitor Joao Gilberto). In Michael Leonhart, Cantuaria has found a horn player with the emotional depth and lyricism to serve as his trumpet muse.

''My feelings go through Miles Davis all the time," Cantuaria says. ''When I write a song, I imagine something more than my guitar, and that's always the trumpet, more than percussion, or keyboard, or another guitar. Michael expresses that so well. Each time I play with him something new happens."