Now Maria João is back with a Brazilian flavoured album, simply called João. With her own band she explores the basics of Brazilian standards. The band is formed around guitarists Mário Delgado and Claúdio Ribeiro, pianist Miguel Ferreira (Fender Rhodes), bassist Yuri Daniel, percussionist Filipe Deniz, drummer Alexandre Frazão and harpist Eleonor Picas. The fourteen songs are clearly chosen by Maria to let herself go in her own style. "Retrato em Branco e Preto" gets a weird twist by the use of slide guitar, beautifully accompanied by only acoustic guitar. On "Partido Alto" the guitar sounds influenced by Bill Frisill, on "E.C.T." a rock influenced guitar riff dominates the arrangement, referring to Cássia Eller’s rendition of this song. "Rosa" gets a very light arrangement with the harp as main instrument. "Canto de Ossanha" sounds very jazzy with the pandeiro of Filipe Deniz mixed up front. Most surprising might be the a cappella rendition of "Tico-Tico no Fubá." On "Dor de Cotovelo" the sentiment is very heavy on the blues. "A Outra" is turned into a beautiful jazz ballad with a whispering Maria João and a ditto instrumentation. Thus each song gets a special treatment by the vocalist who not only loves to play with melodies and harmonies, but who most of all loves to put her stamps upon the music she performs.