The Brazilian bossa nova legend Joyce wrote her first song in 1967.

It was called Me Disseram and began with the line: "I've been told that my man doesn't love me", the first time the first-person feminine voice had ever been used in her country's musical history.

In fact there were hardly any female singer-songwriters in Brazil at the time, and so the 19-year-old Joyce was simply doing what she had learnt from the likes of Billy Holiday and Edith Piaf and expressing herself.

But the song proved controversial, provoking a battle between journalists, who either branded it "vulgar and immoral" or praised its "feminist posture".

By 1980, Brazil still held some semblance of a military government, public life continued to be monitored and women were still ideologically restrained from holding positions of power.

This time with more knowing, Joyce released an album, Feminina, which levelled a direct attack upon political and social authoritarianism through its celebration of womanhood.

Fusing samba and jazz with jubilant traditional folk, it was, as one critic put it, "an ode to the souls and the intellect hidden away by failed governments and their over-zealous censorship".

Nowadays, with 24 successful albums under her belt, Joyce is valued just as highly for the delicacy, immediacy and energy of her work.

While her last studio recording, A Little Bit Crazy, found her exploring new sounds and grooves with the help of European electronic wiz Bugge Wesseltoft, new album Rio Bahia sees her returning to a style which she describes simply as "more classic... more Brazilian".

A collaboration with singer, guitarist and friend Dori Caymmi, it combines upbeat sambas with lush ballads and sweeping strings in what the pair came to see as "a tale of two cities both beautiful but both suffering with the challenges of metropolitan modern life".

Combining her own new material with standards and the results of new songwriting partnerships, Joyce is particularly proud of the inclusion of Flora De Hora, one of the first songwriting collaborations between Caymmi and Chico Buarque, who is famous for writing lyrics from a feminine point of view.

Starts at 8.30pm. Tickets cost £12 and £10, call 01273 647100