A Woman of the World : U.S.-Born, German-Bred, Brazilian-Inspired Singer Is on a Hot Track

Singer Kevyn Lettau is closing out the year much like she began it: with the release of a new record.

“I feel very fortunate to have two records” in the same year, Lettau said in a recent phone interview from her home in Van Nuys. Her record company, Santa Monica-based Nova Records, shares in that fortune. Her “Kevyn Lettau” solo album released earlier this year climbed into the Top 20 of Billboard’s contemporary jazz chart as well as a number of radio-play charts. David Gimpel, president of Nova, a label whose stable of artists includes Brandon Fields, Tony Guerrero and Rob Mullins, says Lettau’s album is the company’s biggest seller to date.

It’s easy to see why. On Tuesday, Lettau appeared at the Santa Monica club At My Place to present music from that album and her new one, “Braziljazz.” The singer’s clean, warm tones carried the show without a heavy reliance on stylistic tricks. The material, all pulled from those two albums, has the kind of contemporary, upbeat sound, with a heavy rhythmic emphasis, that seems tailored for radio play. Lettau appears at El Matador in Huntington Beach tonight and Saturday in the company of keyboardist Bill Cantos, percussionist Michael Shapiro (her husband) and bassist Luther Hughes.

This success is no small accomplishment for the Massachusetts-born, Brazilian-influenced singer who spent much of her childhood in Berlin. She says that living in Germany helped her grow up quickly.

“It was rough,” she said. “My father left us when I was really young, and my mom was pregnant with my younger sister. I guess any big city could have given me the same experience, although growing up in a divided city like that--taking the bus or the subway and seeing that wall all the time and the guards--it takes you out of the fantasy of being a little child.”

When she returned to this country at age 15, Lettau’s primary interest was dance. But after guitarist Peter Sprague enlisted her as a singer--a story Lettau told from the At My Place bandstand--she eventually put aside dancing.

“It’s still a touchy subject with me,” she explained, “because I really loved dance. But there was only so much time to do both, and I’m kind of a perfectionist. I tried to keep up the dancing for a while, but it got to be too frustrating. I couldn’t put into it what I needed to maintain a standard. At that point, I was making a living as a housekeeper. That and trying to keep up my dancing and staying up late at night trying to learn songs--it was just too much.”

Lettau lists a host of singers who have inspired her, including Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday and Carmen McRae as well as Al Jarreau, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Stevie Wonder. Her interest in Brazilian music came after she heard the Stan Getz-Joao Gilberto collaboration “Getz-Gilberto” that contains “The Girl From Ipanema.”

“That album just rocked my boat,” she said. “After that, I started listening to Sergio Mendes, Djavan, Dori Caymmi and Elis Regina.”

Lettau has been a member of the Mendes ensemble since 1984, singing backup for the composer as well as taking the occasional feature.

“I was singing in a Brazilian band called L.A. Samba at the time, and a few of its members also played with Sergio. Sergio heard me at a picnic we did for A&M; Records, and when he needed another singer, he asked me to join.”

She spent five weeks this summer touring Japan and the Philippines with Mendes but says her affiliation with his group doesn’t cut into her own projects.

“He has the luxury of not having to go out on the road that much. Other than the Japanese tour, we’ve done just a few scattered gigs around the states this year.” Lettau is working on Mendes’ next album.

Her album released earlier this year contains a wide range of music, including tunes from Cole Porter, Dori Caymmi, Billy Childs and Yutaka Yokura. Lettau teamed with Brazilian pop star Djavan to write “Tahiti Nui-Obi,” and does a duet with Mendes on Milton Nascimento’s “Bridges.” The music the group plays this weekend at El Matador will be largely pulled from that album, she said.

The new recording finds Lettau in a more familiar format, accompanied by Sprague and percussionist Shapiro. “Braziljazz” is a collection of largely original material the three have been presenting on the Los Angeles club scene since they started working together in 1988. The idea of performing as a trio struck when a bass player failed to show for a gig.

“We always had problems with bass players,” she said. “They’re late to rehearsals or they’re closet guitarists and want to be up front and featured all the time. And then one time our bassist didn’t show up and we decided to explore this avenue without the bass.

“We found that it was really scary but really liberating. Peter and I could change formats and go in and out of all different kinds of things without worrying about someone else following us.”

She met Shapiro, who plays drums on the first release and a variety of hand-held percussion on the latest, while singing at the now-defunct Blue Note club in the San Fernando Valley.

“I asked him to play with me one time, and one thing led to another, and now we’re married. It really is thanks to him that any of these records have happened at all. He’s a real good businessman--the king hustler around this house. It’s kind of rare to find a really good musician who is also such an amazing businessman. They usually don’t work that well together.

At one time the trio worked under the name Braziljazz, but now they bill themselves as Kevyn Lettau, Peter Sprague and Michael Shapiro.

“We changed the name because we didn’t want to be pigeonholed,” the singer says. “We really do a number of different things, not just Brazilian music.”

Kevyn Lettau appears with Bill Cantos, Luther Hughes and Michael Shapiro at 9 p.m. tonight and Saturday at El Matador, 16903 Algonquin St., Huntington Beach. Admission: free. Information: (714) 846-5337.