Growing up in Sao Paolo, Brazil, Souza always knew she would be a jazz artist, she said. Her mother was a poet and lyricist, her father a singer and songwriter in Brazil's popular Bossa Nova style of jazz.

"All we knew was music in the house," Souza said. "I think the moment I started speaking, I was singing as well."

She remembers hungry musicians stopping by her parents' house for a meal and music.

"It sounds idealistic, and it certainly was for me, but it was all about friends and music," Souza said.

She recorded her first jingle for a radio commercial at age 3. Around age 6, she recorded the Sesame Street theme song in Portuguese for Brazil's translation of the children's television show.

She applauds young musicians, she said, and the directors who draw music out of them.

She tells young singers to find the best teachers they can. Her instructors at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she received a scholarship and a bachelor's degree in jazz composition, were critical in her development as a singer and as a person, she said.

Her teachers allowed her to explore her voice. To make mistakes.