Bebel Gilberto
|
|
|
What does a Brazilian girl do when her father’s a legend, her mother’s a star in her own right and her stepmother is the original girl from Ipanema? She hotfoots it out of Rio, leaving João, Miucha and Astrud far behind, to wait table in New York and hope that the family name isn’t too much of an encumbrance.
In this case, it isn’t. Bebel Gilberto’s self-titled album (the follow-up to Tanto Tempo four years ago) stands very much on its own feet as a cool, summery blend of bossa nova and contemporary jazz. And with production credits being shared between Marius de Vries, Guy Sigsworth and Pascal Gabriel, Bebel Gilberto also shows itself to be an album with its own direction. It’s a case of Latin America cherry-picking the best that the North has to offer, rather than vice versa. Low-key electronic beats on ‘Aganjú’ propel, exhilaratingly, a bossa nova into Björk-ish territory.
Songs tend to favour Portuguese over English but, as the sublime opener ‘Simplesmente’ shows, the lush, breezy textures take Gilberto’s material to a new level. Although Gilberto takes the lion’s share of writing credits (including one, ‘O Caminho’, written for Cape Verdean diva, Cesaria Evora), the few covers come from talents like Os Mutantes, Carlinhos Brown and Caetano Veloso. Even here, Gilberto imposes a subtle signature of her own making.
- Product information
- by Bebel Gilberto
- Publisher
- East West
- Product number
- 5046 732 662 CD
- Star rating
- Product link
- www.bebelgilberto.com
Join over 10,000 people just like you. Get e-mail updates about new content, issue alerts, contests, and more!
Voices from the margins:
Multimedia: video, podcasts, and more.
- Poetry Slam in Zimbabwe
- The House of Hunger poetry slam held in Zimbabwe in 2006, and organised by the Pamberi Trust, showcased young artists performing inspirational work on issues from corporate power to child soldiers. The video features four of the poets.
Published by Pambazuka News.
- Iranian women speak out
- 3 March 2007, London. Women's rights activists marched through the English capital last week to celebrate International Women's Day with a protest against the misogyny of the Islamic regime in Iran and the threat of invasion by the US. Hear the voices of Iranian feminists Azar and Leila Parnian and the sounds of the demonstration as it passed through the heart of the city. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
Produced by Heidi Bachram.
- Raised Voices audio:
- Benny from West Papua on Corporate Power
- Vinayan from India on agriculture
New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice.
Except where otherwise noted, images on this site are copyright of the photographer/illustrator or representative agency.Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 License.
