Açaí!

Darker, Sweeter...Well, after all the bull I have had to deal with this last week before my annual South American vacation someone up there must have taken pity on me and dropped an early copy of Bebel Gilberto's new cd Momento in my lap, (it's slated for a March release.) Coming on like a synthesis of her first two cd's, Momento is a wonderful mix of dark and sweet set to a modern slack beat. Not as intimate as her self-titled second disc, an album that was one of the perfect releases of 2004, Momento hones the electronic flourishes of her first album, Tanto Tempo, against the edge of languid Brazilian rhythms and the emotional shorthands used with near perfection on Bebel Gilberto.


So what do we have here 3 years later? A singer who has dipped once again into her cultural (and family) heritage with results both subtle and celebratory. The magic of Bebel is understatement, in both voice and arrangement. This album is actually more accessible on first listen than B.G. The cover of Night and Day is at once bold, beautiful and baffling, as Bebel's original composition, Every Day You've Been Away on B.G. is brought into sharp relief by it. Songs like Close to Me, Momento and Azul will be on endless loop on the ipod, as will the first single, Bring Back the Love, hypnotic, repetitious tunes that owe more to samba than one might first think. Phrasing and rhythm used emotionally and powerfully without the bombast. Nice.


What is most apparent is the quality of Gilberto's voice, which is warm and conversational and seductive but never overtly so. She believes what she sings, and though the songs here may not be as compelling as B.G., she's telling heartfelt stories more than painting pictures. These tunes might actually come to fuller life in concert where Gilberto usually begins a show as the girl next door and ends as the garota de ipanema. And, somehow, she's got the impressive knack for making you think you can speak Portuguese (or at least understand it.) Many of the songs (Os Novos Yorkinos, Tranquilo) seem like melancholy, yet happy, mantras to her status as a New Yorker and a Carioca, a quality that brings full on saudade to Bebel's tunes. So again, Bebel releases a collection that will slowly grow in your mind, perhaps colder at first, yet sweeter than before and then- integral and irresistible.