"Since my childhood, I've been surrounded by music," explains Marisa Monte. "Music is really important in our culture. We cultivate music. Everybody sings, everybody plays music and everybody listens to music." Monte began studying piano and drums as a child, before turning to singing as a teenager. By 19 she was studying opera; the following year, after quickly making a name for herself through live concerts in Rio with a unique voice that is both full of passion and intimacy, full of energy yet simultaneously vulnerable, she recorded her first album. Monte seems to flow effortlessly between the worlds of samba, MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira - Brazilian Popular Music), pop, funk, tropicália and countless other forms. "To talk about Brazilian music is to talk about diversity and variety," she adds. "We have many so many different styles and influences - both internal and external ones. One of the most important characteristics about our culture is mixing and creating new styles, renewing our expressions through the mixes. So, I am very comfortable with it. I am singing what I listen to, what I grew up listening to To mix samba with pop music with funk with bossa nova, as Brazilians, we are used to it, we grew up like this, we live in this kind of variety. It is not just in our music, it is in our food, in our religion, in our race. It is why I want to live here forever."

For Monte, Rio is not just her home, it shows up constantly throughout her music. One of Monte's most touching songs on 2000's "Memories, Chronicles, and Declarations of Love," is "Gentileza". "The song is about a homeless prophet of the people named Gentileza," she explains. "The word means kindness (in Portuguese). Gentileza was a homeless man spent his entire life, 40 years walking the streets of Rio simply preaching kindness, painting graffiti throughout the city with messages like 'kindness generates kindness, violence generates violence'". Monte first met Gentileza when she was a teenager. "Everyone in Rio knew him (before he died 2 years ago). Because he spent his whole life on the streets, he had a huge white beard and dressed in prophet's clothes. He almost looked like Moses with the tablets, handing out flowers and proverbs," she remembers fondly. "In one neighborhood here in Rio, he painted 40 highway support beams with his message of kindness. I remember passing through this neighborhood with Carlinhos Brown, and told him that I wanted to show him something beautiful. Incredibly, when we got there, Gentileza's paintings were gone, replaced with a fresh coat of gray paint. I couldn't believe it. How can someone erase the work of an artist that is preaching kindness in such a violent place?" The incident inspired the song. It also helped launch a movement, a non-governmental organization called "Rio com Gentileza" (Rio with Kindness) that is working to restore all of Gentileza's artwork throughout the city.

Another one of Monte's passions is the rhythm that defines Rio, the samba. In a country with well over 100 distinct musical genres, the samba is perhaps Brazil's best known, and most captivating and infectious. For "Memories", she once again included a song from her favorite samba composer, Paulinho da Viola. Just as Da Viola's "Dança de Solidão" was the most touching song on 1994's "Rose and Charcoal" his heartfelt love song "Para Ver As Meninas" is one of the highlights from Monte's new album. Monte also teamed up with Paulinho da Viola when she traded hats and worked as producer for Velha Guarda Da Portela (The Old Guard of Portela). The group is made up of elderly sambistas from one of Rio's leading samba schools, Portela. "I love working with the old masters," Monte explains enthusiastically. "They have so much respect for the art, respect for principle, ethics, and education." For this project, "Tudo Azul", Monte and Velha Guarda did a massive amount of research, finding songs that have never been recorded, material from the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. "It is living history, and until now, only alive through oral history," she adds. The album was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Best Samba Album of 2000.