It seemed like the albums never stopped coming in 2009. Quality albums, life affirming albums--albums that reminded me why I decided to make music my life all those years ago, because music makes me: so many things. There is rarely a moment when music is not somewhere playing in my life, whether in the yoga studio teaching, on my numerous daily subway rides, or here, at my home office, typing the day away. And for those brief hours of silence each night, sleep offers a soundtrack all its own.
Bebel Gilberto--All In One (Verve)
Bebel Gilberto slipped into the American imagination with Tanto Tempo in 2000 and has refused to leave. The efforts that followed--Bebel Gilberto and Momento--felt like extensions of that North American debut; beautiful in their own right, and never without taste, yet safely embedded within the same paradigm. It's not surprising, given that she is the musical and genetic progeny of two great Brazilian singers. I wouldn't say that All In One, her Verve debut, points in a completely new direction. But it certainly surprises. Her music has always reached for the romantic in her listeners, a nuance continual in the global understanding of Brazilian sounds. This is quite a paradox considering the social and economic strife inherent in many of the country's urban areas. From the Brazilian musicians I've talked to over the years, it seems that the music is not only an "escape," which is what bossa nova has come to represent in certain circumstances; it is also a social and artistic balm that glues people together. This is a worldwide truism in music; it's just that certain artists really grab hold of one's creative faculties, pushing past the bounds of the everyday into a dream-like state--the visionary, the daydreamer. There is really no other way of describing Giblerto's sound, crediting equally her producers as her voice. The expectable Bebel tracks are present: airy odes like "Far From the Sea" and "Port Antonio." She tackles her father's domain with cuts like "Bim Bom" and "Chica Chica Boom Chic," songs that take you back forty years, before Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil slid electric guitars and political messages into the music. Things get more interesting when she tackles two giants and succeeds on both: Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. Flipping "Sun Is Shining" into Portuguese and back into English was a smart move, adding a layer of sensuality to the bass-heavy midtempo track. Bob is sacred territory to many; previous accolades have meant death to a singer. Bebel handles it, along with everything else here, perfectly.
Bebel Gilberto slipped into the American imagination with Tanto Tempo in 2000 and has refused to leave. The efforts that followed--Bebel Gilberto and Momento--felt like extensions of that North American debut; beautiful in their own right, and never without taste, yet safely embedded within the same paradigm. It's not surprising, given that she is the musical and genetic progeny of two great Brazilian singers. I wouldn't say that All In One, her Verve debut, points in a completely new direction. But it certainly surprises. Her music has always reached for the romantic in her listeners, a nuance continual in the global understanding of Brazilian sounds. This is quite a paradox considering the social and economic strife inherent in many of the country's urban areas. From the Brazilian musicians I've talked to over the years, it seems that the music is not only an "escape," which is what bossa nova has come to represent in certain circumstances; it is also a social and artistic balm that glues people together. This is a worldwide truism in music; it's just that certain artists really grab hold of one's creative faculties, pushing past the bounds of the everyday into a dream-like state--the visionary, the daydreamer. There is really no other way of describing Giblerto's sound, crediting equally her producers as her voice. The expectable Bebel tracks are present: airy odes like "Far From the Sea" and "Port Antonio." She tackles her father's domain with cuts like "Bim Bom" and "Chica Chica Boom Chic," songs that take you back forty years, before Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil slid electric guitars and political messages into the music. Things get more interesting when she tackles two giants and succeeds on both: Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder. Flipping "Sun Is Shining" into Portuguese and back into English was a smart move, adding a layer of sensuality to the bass-heavy midtempo track. Bob is sacred territory to many; previous accolades have meant death to a singer. Bebel handles it, along with everything else here, perfectly.
