Family ties

As the daughter of two prominent musicians ““
guitarist-singer João Gilberto; and one of Brazil’s
most-loved singers, Miúcha ““ Bebel Gilberto, has been
surrounded by music from her birth. Since being in diapers, Bebel
has been singing, meeting other musicians and collaborating with
other artists, eventually creating a sound that has helped push
world music into the 21st century.

Bebel is most famous for taking the now-classic Brazilian sounds
and mixing them with electronica, ultimately creating a fusion that
is hip enough for the computer age.

Her sound is smooth, subtle and undeniably chill, and it is
garnering much attention in the United States, Europe and South
America. Currently, Bebel is playing sold-out shows through the
United States, and she comes to Royce Hall tonight.

Bebel’s father is widely acclaimed for co-founding bossa
nova in the late 1950s with songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Gilberto’s whispery voice and suave demeanor earned him
idolization among the beatniks, and his harmonic sophistication
gained him a solid spot among the jazz greats. But he never became
so esoteric that he couldn’t be appreciated by the
mainstream. And indeed he remains one of Brazil’s biggest
superstars.

Bebel hasn’t strayed too far from her father’s path.
Her 2000 release, “Tanto Tempo,” was one of the widest
successes for Brazilian music, selling 650,000 copies outside the
United Kingdom. Bebel’s natural musical ability allowed her
to effortlessly combine her eclectic tastes, like samba, Chet Baker
and Björk into a unique album that struck a chord with fans of
world music, jazz and electronica. Appropriately, “Tanto
Tempo” even gave rise to a quite popular remix album in
2001.

In “Tanto Tempo,” Bebel’s voice is warm and
whispery like her father’s, creating a sense of intimacy that
helps draw in the listener. And after trying to create closeness
with her listeners, Bebel treats them with a combination of buzzes,
pops and beats of electronica that make the music both danceable
and emotional. Rather than feeling inorganic like some electronic
music does, Bebel’s songs feel distinctly human.

“I was just following my heart,” said Bebel about
her creative process. “I’m not a person who sits down
and says, “˜I’m going to do this now.’ I really
follow my heart and my ideas.”

On “Tanto Tempo,” Bebel collaborated extensively
with such artists as Amon Tobin, Smoke City, Carlinhos Brown,
João Parahyba and The Thievery Corporation, just to name a
handful. Her penchant for collaboration is shown on her most recent
release, “Bebel Gilberto,” for which she worked with
such eminent musicians as Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano
Veloso, Björk’s producer Marius de Vries, Japanese
guitarist Masaharu Shimizu and pianist Daniel Jobim.

Her band even wrote some of the songs for this album during
spontaneous jams on the tour bus.

“We’re always playing,” she said. “Pedro
Baby, for instance is always playing guitar; my other guitar player
(Shimizu) ““ they are both playing all the time in the
bus.”

Overall, the U.S. tour has been a positive experience for Bebel,
despite a rainy opening on the East Coast. Bebel talked about
audiences’ being generally responsive, from sober concert
hall-goers where “couples cuddle” to festival audiences
where people “dance and shake their butts.” She finds
it heartening that so many of her shows are selling out. But the
most important thing, she notes, is that she is surrounded by
friends.

“We all like each other. We all hang out with each other.
We all love each other,” Bebel said about her six-piece band.
“And I think that comes across (to audiences).”