CéU: Finding her Brazilian soul by way of New York

As a restless teenager growing up in São Paulo, South America's largest city, Maria do Céu Whitaker Poças desperately wanted to step outside Brazilian culture to experience American music firsthand.

At 18, she moved to New York City to live with an aunt, immersing herself in jazz, blues and R&B.

But by the time she returned to Brazil a year later, where she eventually emerged as the single-name sensation CéU, she had forged deep creative ties with a coterie of fellow Brazilian musicians working in the Big Apple, including guitarist Alec Halat and Antonio Pinto, best known as a film composer for his work on the Oscar-nominated films "Central Station" and "City of God."

Now the most visible young Brazilian singer on a scene teeming with alluring vocalists, CéU opens a two-night run at the Triple Door Monday as part of her fifth tour since the release of her chart-topping album on Six Degrees/Starbucks/Hear Music.

"I tried to run away from Brazilian culture, but it was so much inside of me," says CéU, 29, with a laugh. Her name means "sky" or "heaven" in Portuguese.

"I was traveling to see another culture, but I met these guys, and I knew I wanted to keep my roots, because all the music I do is basically samba melodies, while trying to add other influences."

Last year CéU released a lovely Six Degrees follow-up, "Vagarosa," that hit the second spot on the world-music charts and expanded on her lithesome, electronica-inflected sound.

Her star is ascending as she makes new creative connections. Last month Herbie Hancock flew to São Paulo to record her singing a beloved Afro-samba by Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes for his upcoming album, "The Imagine Project."

For this tour, she's focusing on songs from the recent album, along with classic sambas by Martinho da Vila and American standards like "It Takes Two to Tango," inspired by the playful rendition from Betty Carter's classic 1961 collaboration with Ray Charles.

CéU may have found her Brazilian soul in New York, but sounds of the city served as an essential catalyst.

"I don't know why it had to happen in New York, but I became a composer there," CéU says. "Somehow I started to sing my own melodies. I started to find the right chords."

Andrew Gilbert: jazzscribe@aol.com