Hotel Bossa Nova are notorious musical globetrotters, adventurous and curious crossover artists of world jazz, who are easily able to delve into different stylistic spheres. On their sixth studio album called “Little Fish”, the German jazz quartet from Wiesbaden once again elaborately breaks the boundaries of rigid genres. Besides the eponymous sound of bossa nova, elements of samba, fado and other latin jazz sounds as well as cool and classic jazz bits flow into their thrilling compositions, in which all stylistic components merge and become fantastically blurred. Liza da Costa, the vibrant and bubbly Portuguese-Indian singer, shines like a lightning ball of energy; she is accompanied by exceedingly able improvisational talents Tilmann Höhn (guitar), Wolfgang Stamm (drums, percussion) and Alexander Sonntag (upright bass), who harmonize to the point of perfection. For the recordings of “Little Fish”, Hotel Bossa Nova have invited a couple of guests whose contributions on Rhodes and piano, electric guitar and additional vocals lend a well-tempered summery atmosphere to the album. On top of the variety of styles that ranges from the pop appeal of a focussed samba (“Peixinho”) to the complex rhythms full of clever twists (“Perguntas”) and the melancholy of fado (“Rosa Morena”), the songs also impress with their humorous and poetic lyrics which offer everyday stories, raise philosophical questions or allure with high-class scat. With their 12-year-old history, Hotel Bossa Nova are surely no longer an insider tip in Germany. Indeed, they now even count among the most exciting European live acts of world jazz and are planning to tour in France for the first time this year.