Bebel Gilberto - Momento (Six Degrees)
Section: Talent
By: Ernesto Lechner
Bossa nova daughter struggles between legacy and modernity.
There's a dangerously thin line that separates the transcendental innocence of soulful lounge from the emptiness of New-Age fluff. Until now, the daughter of bossa nova pioneer Joao Gilberto had displayed, with her first two albums of seminal electro-bossa, an impeccable taste and grace. But this overcooked third effort at times recalls the most forgettable aspects of late-era Sade. The tacky "Os Novos Yorkinos, " for instance, is Gilberto's goofiest moment since she recorded "The Girl From Ipanema " with Kenny G.
Momento, though, isn't a complete bust. There's always Gilberto's voice - smoky, velvety, infinitely sensuous - and her ability to find depth in glorious nuggets of Brazil's musical past. Her take on Chico Buarque's classic 1972 "Caçada " is luminous and warm. And a collaboration with Sabina Sciubba and Didi Gutman of New York's Brazilian Girls on "Bring Back The Love " exploits Gilberto's strengths - a gorgeous combination of lazy bossa inflections with liquid electronic textures - to maximum effect. The more Gilberto's warm tone invokes Brazil's past, the more she shines. But when her quest to be modern obscures it, it's a strike against her family's legacy.
