Cibelle

 (17 customer reviews)

Suba would be proud!! His protege, Cibelle, has hit it out of the park on her debut CD. Of course, we had already gotten a taste of her talent on "Sao Paulo Confessions" and her "Dia de Yemanja" from "The Now Sound of Brazil," but she totally exceeds all expectations here. Surprisingly, "Dia..." is not even on her debut CD, but there is so much strong material here that it's quite all right. The one thing you notice immediately is the AMAZING use of electronics by Apollo 9. The opening track "Deixa" should be required listening at any hip function this summer (parties, coffee houses, housecleaning). The electronic sounds caress you like a warm bath when listened to on headphones. The quality of the songs is amazingly high from the funk of "Waiting" to her great Chrissie Hynde-style vocals on "No Prego." "Pequenos Olhos" is a great soothing way to end the album, but the one track here that made my jaw hit the ground (and tears well in my eyes) is "Luisas!" Dear heavens, this...Read more

That is the question. Both are talented, both benefitted from working with the late Suba. But I guess the answer to the title question will be answered this winter when (hopefully) Bebel's new album is released. I wasn't too fond of Cibelle's "Dia de Yemanja" and her style of singing in Celso Fonseca's remake of "Carioca". But she scratched almost all of that, and came out with a gem. Former mates of Suba, Apollo 9 (Caipirissima) and Joao Parahyba of Trio Mocoto fame picked it up and ran with it. Cibelle doesn't really define her sound - although the style of this cd is very mellow. What you are hit with straight away is a bit of attitude in Deixa, and then taken on a sort of journey with a woman that's seen a lot in her young life - the good, the bad, the sad and the passionate. Some of the cuts that really stood out to me were Hate, where she almost eerily blurs the line between love and hate. Luisas is smooth and a track where she goes in and out of...Read more

Brazilian singer Cibelle seems destined for international stardom given the rising interest in both samba and bossa nova over the past five years. It is difficult to predict the ebb point of musical trends, but Cibelle's robust talent should withstand any potential audience saturation . Everything she sings has oozes the samba sensibility, but her jazz aptitude, and the fact that she sings in both Portuguese and English are certain to broaden her appeal. As it happens, Cibelle may reach audiences in the United States through the back door. There's a chance that Cibelle will be discovered by the growing audience for unique female jazz stylists in the States. Cibelle seems destined the same concert hall audiences of her worthy musical peers like, Nora Jones, Diana Krall and Madeleine Peyroux. More than Jones, Krall or Peyroux, Cibelle is a natural singer who can carry most any song on her strength of her voice. While Krall and Peyroux rely on heavily on other people's music, Cibelle...Read more