Joao Bosco: A Joyful Mosaic of Music

There’s no one quite like Joao Bosco. The 48-year-old Brazilian singer-songwriter is one of the most energetic and galvanizing musicians in the world.

His appearance at the Brazilian Music Festival Saturday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium was his first in Southern California in several years--far too long a hiatus for an artist of his stature.

Bosco, composing with lyricist Aldir Blanc, is one of the significant architects of Musica Popular Brasileira , or MPB, the mixture of bossa nova, samba, jazz and other styles that was Brazil’s urban popular music of the ‘60s and ‘70s. His performance Saturday was a masterful exhibition of the colorful mosaic of rhythms, harmonies and melodies that contributed to and eventually emerged from MPB.

Bosco--at his best in the opening part of his set, when he worked as a soloist, accompanied only by his remarkable guitar playing--was a whirlwind of strumming and finger picking, building layers of rhythm beneath a series of deceptively complex vocals. At one point, he even stopped using his guitar, ending a piece on an explosive sequence of hypnotic, gripping vocal sound effects.

Bosco defined the sheer joy of making music and the effect that joy can have on a receptive, active audience--regardless of differences of language or culture.

Also on the bill were Kenia, the highly theatrical Eliana Estevao, the Brazilian All Stars band and the 23-piece Bahian ensemble Olodum.

* The festival continues Saturday at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, 1855 Main St., 9 p.m., with Emilo Santiago, Kenia, Pau Brasil and the Brazilian All Stars, and a guest appearance by Dionne Warwick. $30 and $45. (310) 854-0553.