Bebel Gilberto has been singing professionally since she was seven, but she really made her first unforgettable mark on the solo debut Tanta Tempo (2000), which sold more than a million worldwide.

Tanta was the perfect blending of bossa nova with modern sensibilities, infused with tasteful electronica. Produced by Suba, the album was a wonderful collaboration with a mix of songs sung in Portuguese and English, including Brazilian classics, standards such as So Nice as well as Gilberto’s original material.

The two albums that followed — Bebel Gilberto (2004) and Momento (2007) — both after Suba’s death and both more in a traditional bossa vein, were very good but didn’t quite reach the heights of Tanta Tempo. Her latest, All In One, is perhaps her most varied and eclectic work and it equals, and at times, surpasses the debut.

The disc includes six songs written or co-written by Gilberto and includes musicians and producers such as Didi Gutman, of Brazilian Girls, Daniel Jobim, son of Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Carlinhos Brown, a star in his own right in Brazil as well as one-third of the landmark Brazilian album Tribalistas with Marisa Monte and Arnaldo Antunes.

All In One works best on tracks that Gilberto, daughter of bossa nova legend Joao Gilberto, either produces herself or works in concert with Gutman and/or Brown. Where Suba brought atmospherics through electronics, Gutman brings it with keyboard layers, effects and impeccable arrangements, and Brown, with an acoustic array of tribal and traditional instruments, particularly percussion, his specialty.

Gilberto’s voice is suited so well to the material. Soft, cool and sultry at times but also capable of reaching demanding heights on some of the tunes. The rhythms are infectious and brilliantly played by a core of musicians that includes Masa Shimizu, acoustic guitar, Thomas Bartlett, keyboards, and John King, synth and some production work, among many others.

The gentle, lilting melody of the opener Cancao De Amor, written with Shimizu, gives way to a reworking of Bob Marley’s Sun Is Shining, sung in Portuguese and English, with its easy, non-stop, swaying Latin feel, propelled by Shimizu’s guitar figure. Two covers Bim Bom, written by Joao Gilberto and produced by Daniel Jobim, and the single, Carmen Miranda’s classic Chica Chica Boom Chic, are light, swinging, uptempo romps that Gilberto navigates beautifully.

Bebel’s voice is charming when she sings in Portuguese, a beautiful language for music, with its hushed, soft cadence, but it’s perhaps even more thrilling when she switches to English, retaining much of its Latin qualities while blending with North American inflections. Bebel is a native of New York though she also grew up in Rio.

Brown’s productions, which include his own Nossa Senhora, Ela (On My Way), the title track with King and Gutman, and Secret (Segredo) with Bebel, are all highlights. Brown contributes an endless number of instruments on some tracks that include bongo, drums, guitar, timbales, boca, shake, congas, cricket, block, clave and many more. It’s all executed with subtlety and exacting placement, enhancing each track.

Bebel’s two solo productions, the gorgeous Far From The Sea, with a string section of two violins and two cellos, and Forever, a spare acoustic oriented arrangement, are both recorded and performed with delicacy and proficiency.

The only misfire on the album is produced by Mark Ronson, who has worked with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, on Stevie Wonder’s The Real Thing. The track buries Gilberto’s voice underneath an overproduction of horns and synths that has an overall tinny sound and somehow succeeds in making Bebel’s vocal sound thin.

Port Antonio, a Gilberto-Gutman collaboration, closes the proceedings, a piano dominated ballad that appropriately gives us Bebel singing a gentle, poignant melody to string accompaniment.

All In One is Gilberto’s best work since Tanta Tempo. Her performance, songwriting and production are a delight. I had a chance to see her in concert in a courtyard at Yale during New Haven’s International  Festival, following her success with Tanta Tempo. She’s enthralling in concert as the acoustic performance below of Samba E Amor demonstrates.