The romantics laid siege to Confederation Park last night, covering its cool, grassy surface with blankets fit for two, toasting one another with plastic glasses of red wine, and mutually swooning to the languid energy of Bebel Gilberto, the melodic minx on the main stage of the TD Canada Trust Ottawa International Jazz Festival.
Bebel, artfully poured into a sleek black outfit (complete with wraparound shades), introduced herself by way of some slow, expressive voguing (perhaps necessitated by her barely healed broken leg), before accommodating a laidback beat of vibes, acoustic guitar and percussion with her unmistakable fall-away voice, the one that sounds out the rhythm in short, sing-a-long phrases, holds long, vibrato-less notes, and surrounds the melody with "baa baa ay baa baa"s and "hmm hmm hmmm"s.
The combination of her style and look inspired a plethora of "S" words: South American and singer, of course, but also sleek, silky, sexy, sultry, seductive and smooth.
Her take on the bossa nova is not, as generations from her famous father (composer Joao Gilberto) forward would have it, wistful and distant; it is satisfied and close, a blanket she envelopes herself in fully, basking in the ultra-fineness of the material. Miss G sings like afterglow feels.
After a choice selection of Portuguese songs from her four CDs, including the discoesque mood-breaker "Aganju" that had the audience clapping along, she introduced a few English perennials: a Diana Krall-like version of "Night and Day," featuring a baritone solo that was the only thing that approached pure jazz all evening, and a fun turn at the cha-cha classic, "So Nice."
She was at her best, however, when accompanied solely by guitar, an opportunity to indulge herself as freely as possible, to roll around sonorously in her sheer love of being in front of an audience and to melodically savor every impulsive note.
By evening's end (tour's end, really, as this was her final stop in North America), the crowd, as if pining for a lover not to go, begged her to stay. She did, of course, and kissed them all better with a spirited encore.
Despite a sound better suited to the intimacy afforded by the cabaret-style setting of the Festival's other main venue, the studio of the National Arts Centre, Bebel Gilberto, aided by a full moon no less!, imbued the expanse of the park with the spirit of romance.
Love was in the air last night, and Miss Gilberto got the queen's share of it.
