*** Gilberto Gil

BITTER

(Atlantic/Mesa)

This superb live album by Brazilian singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil captures the party atmosphere of his concert performances. The bulk of the songs come from his 1997 Quanta album (Atlantic/Mesa), but Gil also throws in some earlier material plus two Bob Marley covers (sung in their original English, for those who are Portuguese-impaired).

Gil is a charismatic performer, with a falsetto that Smokey Robinson might covet, an energy level that rivals Springsteen's, and the relaxed, yet powerful delivery of a jazz singer. Since his emergence in the '60s as part of the música popular brasileira movement, he has made a conscious effort to appeal to a wide, international audience, mixing the music of his homeland with radio friendly pop music -- like reggae, funk, jazz, and rock -- from other countries in the African Diaspora. The result is an irresistibly danceable and sensuous cultural fusion. He's also a crafty lyricist, offering ironic critiques of the Information Age on "Pela Internet" and "Cérebro Electrônica," celebrating absurdities of love on the tender "Estrela," and lamenting the limitations of rational art and science in "Quanta." That may sound like a heavy load to saddle pop songs with, but Gil's philosophical musings never get in the way of his groove.

-- Ed Hazell