Isabel Gilberto de Oliveira, better known as known as Bebel Gilberto, was born May 12, 1966 in New York to Brazilian parents. She grew up in Brazil.
Bebel Gilberto has appeared on albums by some of the most important Brazilian artists of our time: Caetano Veloso, Joao Gilberto and Chico Buarque. She has also collaborated with David Byrne. On her first solo effort, a self-titled 1986 EP, she worked with one of the greatest Brazilian composers and performers of the day, Cazuza.
Since then she sang “The Girl from Ipanema” on Kenny G’s platinum selling Classics in the Key of G and made several contributions to the bossa nova-infused score for Next Stop Wonderland. Her and Cazuza’s hit “Preciso Dizer Que Te Amo” closed the great Red Hot &Rio compilation.
Joao Gilberto, one of the most revered musicians in Brazil, is Bebel Gilberto’s father. With his gentle whisper and his revolutionary ability to distil the complex rhythms of the samba in a guitar strum, João Gilberto was one of the creators of bossa nova. Bebel’s mother is another Brazilian legend. Miúcha is one of Brazil’s finest singers, and one of only three vocalists to share an entire album with Antonio Carlos Jobim (Elis Regina and Frank Sinatra are the two others.) As Bebel Gilberto says, “My mother deserves all the credit, because she was very important for me, in terms of learning how to sing. My mother was really my first singing teacher. She taught me how to improvise and do vocal harmonizing, since I was a little girl.”
When Bebel was nine years old, she appeared at Carnegie Hall with her mother and Stan Getz, as part of the Newport Jazz Festival. Around the same time she was appearing on children’s television shows in Brazil. Further enhancing the family tree, Miúcha’s brother, Bebel’s uncle, is the composer-singer Chico Buarque, another revered figure in Brazilian music.
All of this may help explain the long delay in the recording of Bebel’s first full-length album. Because, as she puts it, “Sometimes its hard to be an artist in a family of artists…It’s difficult, especially in Brazil. That’s one of the reasons why I left Brazil almost 10 years ago. There’s a lot of pressure. People look at you expecting a lot from you. It’s almost impossible to do something.”
Since her early childhood, Bebel has been doing plenty of acting, soundtrack work, and guest vocal appearances. Her 1986 debut EP, recorded when she was 18, led to one of the biggest Brazilian pop hits of the 1980s: “Eu Preciso Dizer Que Te Amo,” a Top 10 hit for Marina (and winner of the 1989 Premio Sharp Award for Single of the Year.)
Ten years later, another song from that EP, “Mais Feliz,” was covered by pop star Adriana Calcanhoto and became a huge hit. Both songs were co-written by the great Cazuza, who, tragically, died of AIDS in July of 1990 at the age of 32, before his growing fame could reach outside of Brazil. Bebel calls Cazuza “the most powerful poet of the 1980s generation in Brazil.”
So, in 1991, Bebel Gilberto moved from Rio, where she grew up, to the city where she was born, New York. There, Bebel began working with such artists as David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, Nana Vasconcelos and Romero Lubambo. She headlined in clubs and at Lincoln Center and appeared in the controversial video for Caetano Veloso’s single “Fora Da Ordem.” When Arto Lindsay and producer Beco Dranoff sought out fresh voices for the Next Stop Wonderland soundtrack, they teamed Bebel with Vinicius Cantuana for updated takes on bossa nova classics.
She began working with producers who were bringing the sounds of Brazilian music to contemporary dance floors. Her work with deejay-producer Towa Tei on his albums Future Listening and Sound Museum led to a worldwide dance hit, “Technova,” which she co-wrote. She worked with Washington D.C.’s Thievery Corporation on their single “Só Com Voce” and with Dutch duo Arling and Cameron on “Sem Contençao,” which first appeared on Brazil 2 Mil, a compilation of new Brazilian music which came out on Crammed Discs’ Ziriguiboom imprint.
And when her father, João Gilberto, made his first New York appearance in a decade, at a sold-out Carnegie Hall concert in 1998, Bebel joined him for a touching duet. But by then, Bebel had moved from New York to London. “It’s incredible how people love Brazilian music in Europe. I think people admire it more than they do in the U.S. In Europe I’m finding now a big opening in France, the U.K., and Germany. It’s incredible. It’s really exciting.”
As the 20th Century was winding down, Bebel started working on Tanto Tempo. Her friend Béco Dranoff introduced her to Marc Hollander and his Brussels-based Crammed Discs label, a working relationship was struck, and very soon Bebel was recording in Brazil, alongside producer Suba (the brilliant Yugoslavian expatriate from São Paulo, whose own debut album was also about to come out on Ziriguiboom/Crammed). So, twenty-five years after she made her recording debut (she was 7 at the time…) on an album by her mother, Bebel Gilberto finally made her first full-length album.
Tanto Tempo takes the classic sound of bossa nova, Bebel Gilberto’s birthright, and brings it into the cool light of the 21st Century. About her debut album, Bebel Gilberto saids, “The album’s name in Portuguese, in a way means, ‘So Long.’ Tanto is ‘so much’ and tempo is ‘time.’ It’s funny – sometimes people make jokes and say, “It’s taken you so long.”
The album features a mix of old and new songs. From the bossa nova era of the 1960s comes Baden Powell and Vinicius de Moraes’ “Samba da Bengao” and Marcos Valle’s delicious “Summer Samba (So Nice),” which was a Top 40 hit in 1966 for organist Walter Wanderiey. There is Chico Buarque’s lovely “Samba e Amor,” and João Donate and Gilberto Gil’s “Bananeira” featuring the legendary João Donato on keyboards.
There are also new and old Bebel compositions, including her and Cazuza’s “Mais Feliz” from her first EP, and collaborations like “August Day Song,””Sem Contençao,””Lonely,””Close Your Eyes,””Alguem,” and the title track. Among the album’s many collaborators are Amon Tobin, Carlinhos Brown, João Parahyba, Smoke City, The Thievery Corporation, Celso Fonseca, Mario Caldato Jr., and, producer Suba, who died tragically in a fire before the album was finished.
In 2009, she released All in One , a more personal endeavor. In addition to silky originals, the album includes covers, such as the Ronson produced and Stevie Wonder-penned “The Real Thing,” Bob Marley’s “Sun Is Shining” and Carmen Miranda’s “Chica Chica Boom Chic.”
Discography
Um Certo Geraldo Pereira, Funarte, with Pedrinho Rodrigues (1983, Atração)
De Tarde, Vendo O Mar, with Luizão Maia & Banzai (1991)
Tanto Tempo (Ziriguiboom, 2000)
Tanto Tempo Remixes (Ziriguiboom, 2001)
Tanto Tempo Special Remix Edition (EastWest Records, 2003)
Bebel Gilberto (Ziriguiboom, 2004)
Bebel Gilberto Remixed (Ziriguiboom, 2005)
Momento (Ziriguiboom, 2007)
All in One (Verve Records, 2009)
Tudo (Sony, 2014)
www.bebelgilberto.com
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.