What do you get when you mix Steely Dan, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell with bossa nova? Babel, you might think. But leave it to Luciana Souza, the Brazilian-born, California-based singer and composer, to bring off this unlikely mission of cultural entente - called "The New Bossa Nova" - con brio. Who better? Souza, a three-time Grammy nominee for best jazz singer, has spent most of her life straddling the hemispheres. Born to honored bossa nova composers Teresa Souza and Walter Santos, she grew up to the feathery sounds that make Brazil Brazil and that eventually caught the ears of the likes of Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz.

She honed her talent at the Berklee College of Music, in Boston, adding touches of classical theory and jazz composition to the mix. Toggling easily from the cerebral to the soulful, Souza has set poems by Pablo Neruda ("Neruda") and Elizabeth Bishop ("The Poems of Elizabeth Bishop" and "North and South") to song, reinvented famous sambas and bossa nova classics (Duos I, Duos II), and launched many of her own compositions over the last 20 years. She has also found time to perform opera for avant garde composer Osvaldo Golijov. She is featured on Herbie Hancock's latest CD, "River," due for release on September 25.

But Souza has lifted her imagination an octave for "The New Bossa Nova," produced by her husband Larry Klein, who has worked with Joni Mitchell, Madeleine Peyroux and Peter Gabriel. Each of the 12 cuts on this CD takes a bow to some of the most familiar names (for us Boomers, anyway) in the folk/pop/rock pantheon, from ex-Beach Boy Brian Wilson to Randy Newman, with a special tip of the hat to Antônio Carlos Jobim, who might just be Brazil's Cole Porter. But don't expect brassy show tunes or wah wah guitar. In Souza's delicate arrangements and occasionally melancholy vocals, pop standards like Newman's "Living Without You" and Mitchell's "Down to You" are rendered as poginant caresses. Wilson's patented uptempo "God Only Knows" becomes an oration. And even earnest old James Taylor comes off as cool as a wave washing up on Ipanema in "Never Die Young," performed in duet with Souza. "Bossa nova is all about reflection and introspection," says Souza. "This is my way of paying homage to some of the musical poets of my generation."

Listen in at www.lucianasouza.com/interview.html