Two years ago, when we worried about things as comparatively light as whether or not our favorite TV show would make it through the next cut — they never did, by the way — I fell in love. Not your garden-variety, conventional hottie of the month crush, but a genuine I want to have her babies obsession.
Her name is Bebel, and she's Brazilian Royalty, thankyouverymuch. She's never met me, but that's not gonna stop her from thinking I'm the cat's pajamas.

I'm sure it's happened to all of us to a degree. The music that lifts your heart through the roof and puts you anywhere your mind can imagine. Vocals so beautiful that they bring you to the point of tears each time. That's what Bebel Gilberto's Tanto Tempo [Six Degrees Records] does to me.

The offspring of a family that spans decades.....scratch that....that built bossanova, Bebel Gilberto is single-handedly bringing back some of the most beautiful music ever created. For those uninitiated to the bossanova, it goes much deeper than Girl From Ipanema, although the good stuff usually falls from the same tree.

During the recording of Tanto Tempo, Bebel's producer Suba was killed in a car accident. He never heard the end result of his wonderful work. Although I don't speak Portuguese, I can only imagine that every song is Bebel's longing for Suba. I could be wrong, though, but I doubt it.
The musical legacy of Bebel's family lives through this disc. Gilberto Gil, Joao and Astrud Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim were setting the standard for bossanova in the early 1960's. During that time jazz legend Stan Getz played a major role in bringing the relaxed, sensual music into the mainstream American audience, starting a worldwide obsession with the passionate phrasing and melodies of the South American style. Like much other music of that period, however, it was drowned-out by the emergence of The Beatles, although it didn't suffer the same fate that many other types of music did at the time.

Now Bebel, with the aid of only the most talented of today's new crop of neo-bossanova instrumentalists, is bringing it all back....and it's wonderful. From the title track Tanto Tempo to the sweetness of Samba de Bencao, the family legacy remains. Vocals so full and lush that they pour out of the speakers and take control your mind, and music that will force your heartbeat to adapt to its tempo, this is the perfect introduction to the modern wave of bossa.

It has been almost three years since this disc was released, and Bebel fans the world over are eagerly anticipating her next outing. In the meantime popular producers and DJs the from every corner make remixes of these songs, which although interesting in their own right cannot begin to tap into the passion and feel of the original.
If I had the money I'd buy a million copies of Tanto Tempo and hand them out to everyone I meet. But then that would mean I'd have to share my discovery with the rest of the world. I don't know if I'm ready to do that just yet.
Please, Bebel....I need more. Your fans need more. Your future fans, once they hear Tanto Tempo, will be compelled to agree with the converted.....you are the new Queen of Bossanova.