Tania Maria Correa Reis (born May 9, 1948 in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil), professionaly known as Tania Maria, is a Brazilian jazz and MPB singer, pianist, composer and bandleader, singing mostly in Portuguese or English. Her style combines an original fusion of jazz, funk and pop with Brazilian genres such as samba, bossa nova and Afro-Latin influences.
Tania began playing the piano at the age of seven and became a bandleader at the age of thirteen, when her band of professional musicians, organized by her father, won first prize in a local music contest and went on to play for dances, in clubs and on the radio. Her father, a metal worker and a gifted guitarist and singer, had encouraged her to study piano so that she could play in his weekend jam sessions, where she first absorbed the rhythms and melodies of samba, jazz, pop music and Brazilian chorinho. Since then, she has never worked in anyone else's group. She has a degree in law, married early and had children.
Maria's first album, Apresentamos (We Present), was released in Brazil in 1966, followed by Olha Quem Chega (Look Who's Here!) in 1971, but it was a move to Paris, France, in 1974 that exploded her onto the international scene. At a concert in Australia, her formidable musical precision and freewheeling spirit caught the attention of the late American guitarist, Charlie Byrd, who recommended her to the late Carl Jefferson, founder of Concord Records.
Tania's 1983 album Come With Me started her international breakthrough with the title song becoming a 1980's dance-floor classic that has since been covered frequently.
