August Bebel

Tudo is Brazilian singer and songwriter Bebel Gilberto's first album in five years. It marks a reunion with producer Mario Caldato, Jr., who helmed her breakthrough offering, 2000's Tanto Tempo. Recorded in six different studios in America and Brazil, Gilberto's MPB weds modern bossa, samba, contemporary jazz, and adult pop. Tudo's sound is elegant, more restrained yet more colorful than anything she's attempted before. She wrote or co-wrote seven of these tunes and sings in Portuguese, English, and French. The dreamy, sun-drenched opener, "Somewhere Else," with bossa guitars, jazzy piano, brushed drums, and gentle percussion, is brilliantly but subtly illustrated by a slightly dramatic string arrangement from Miguel Atwood-Ferguson (who does the same on two other selections), making the tune a kind of manifesto.