For a rock musician, the ability to make everything sound easy and effortless is liable to arouse suspicion. For a bossa-nova artist, it's pretty much a prerequisite. As one of the music's major architects, Brazilian singer-songwriter Joyce has spent 35 years in a state of cool sophistication.

She was guaranteed a warm reception at Manchester's Band on the Wall, a venue so close to her heart that she wrote a song about it on her last album. But with songs this irresistible, and a band of this calibre, she could probably have coaxed an encore from a Ban the Bossa Nova pressure group.

She has 24 albums to her credit, yet she looks young enough to be mistaken for an up-and-coming artist. Joyce and her compatriots were fresh from an appearance at Glastonbury, and they brought with them an aroma of sunshine and festive cheer. Ostensibly here to promote the new album, Just a Little Bit Crazy, they unveiled each glittering song as if it were a heartfelt gift to a well-loved friend.

Broadly speaking, the music obeyed all bossa nova's time-honoured qualities: it was feather-light and playful, possessing all the insouciance of birdsong. But there was no reliance on stylistic cliches, and the songs such as A Banda Maluca and Os Medos pulsed with intriguing harmonies and sly melodic twists.

A captivating singer with a pure, bell-like voice, Joyce allowed her contribution to blend into the delicate tapestry of a band performance. Her fellow musicians brought a jazzy sensibility to the material.

Drummer Tutty Moreno sprinkled the familiar samba grooves with broken-time cymbal patterns and propulsive polyrhythms, while Teco Cardoso and Nailor Proveta unleashed virtuosic solos from their collective arsenal of woodwind instruments. The flute and clarinet took it in turns to spar with Joyce's vocal lines, occasionally matching her note for note before breaking away into thrilling counterpoint.

Joyce allowed herself several passages of relaxed scat-singing, managing to inject a sense of sparkling wit into the dumbest of phrases. The audience didn't know whether to dance or swoon, yet the musicians shed not one drop of sweat. They may have done a smouldering version of A Hard Day's Night, but Joyce and her band looked and sounded as if they were having the easiest night of their lives.

· At the Coal Exchange, Cardiff, tonight. Box office: 029-2023 0130. Then touring.