New Divas Crowding Onto the Scene

The world music arena is not exactly lacking in divas. Performers such as Cesaria Evora, Susana Baca, Oumou Sangare, Celia Cruz, Mercedes Sosa, Marta Sebestyen, Lata Mangeshkar, Angelique Kidjo and numerous others have thoroughly established their preeminent roles in global music.

Even so, it’s good to know that new divas are arriving with considerable regularity. Bebel Gilberto, however, might more accurately be described as a princess than a diva--the Princess of Bossa Nova. The daughter of Joao Gilberto, the music’s most seminal figure, and singer Miucha, Gilberto, 32, first performed at age 9 when she appeared at Carnegie Hall with her mother and Stan Getz as part of the Newport Jazz Festival.

Although she has performed on albums by everyone from Caetano Veloso and David Byrne to Kenny G, her first full-length solo album, “Tanto Tempo,” will be released later this month on the Six Degrees label. In it, Gilberto makes a case for the continuing vitality of the bossa nova genre with several impressive new originals and the contemporary recasting of a few classics.

Some interesting similarities exist between Gilberto and Portuguese singer Misia. Both speak the same language, and Misia, like Gilberto, is casting new light on a familiar musical form. In Misia’s case, however, the form is fado, the darkly passionate, traditional Portuguese vocal music.

Every gifted new fado singer who comes along is inevitably compared to the legendary Amalia Rodriguez, who died last year. Misia, however, has taken the legacy both forward and backward. Her new album, “Paixoes Diagonais” (on Erato/Detour), encompasses traditional as well as contemporary material, all of it based on literary sources, all of it filled with the keening saudade that is the passionate heartbeat of fado. And Misia’s renderings superbly illustrate her fundamental belief about fado: “I think that feminine voices can express feelings better than men’s because women are not afraid to cry,” she says.

It may be a bit of a stretch to include two instrumentalists among the list of new world-music divas, but it’s hard to overlook the growing visibility of Canadian fiddler Natalie MacMaster, 27, and hardanger violinist Annbjorg Lien, 29.

MacMaster has been showered with Canadian awards honoring her high-spirited interpretations of the music of her native Cape Breton Island. But in the past year or so, her audience has been expanding dramatically, and with good reason. Her new album, “My Roots Are Showing” (Rounder Records), in stores next week, provides an exuberantly delightful sample of her talent for bringing jigs, reels and airs to vivid life. But her live performances, in which she adds simultaneous step dancing to her fiddle playing, are even better, the work of a world music star with real crossover potential. MacMaster appears at the Hollywood Bowl on July 30.

Can a Norwegian performer on the rarely heard hardanger violin actually surface beyond the boundaries of the esoteric folk music world? In Lien’s case, the answer is a resounding yes. Her new album, “Baba Yaga” (Northside Records), frames her instrument--which has four or five freely vibrating strings beneath the four that are played by the bow--in quasi-orchestral settings that more closely resemble the work of Bjork than traditional folk music. The album is a breakthrough for the charismatic Lien, positioning her exotic-sounding instrument in a lush texture of sound and rhythm that brings Norwegian tradition to the world-beat dance floor.

Yiddishe L.A.: With Passover approaching, it’s worth checking out jazz clarinetist Abe Most’s album “I Love You Much Too Much,” described by the producers as “a jazz album of songs from Jewish life.” Most performs with, among others, his flutist brother, Sam Most, singer Joanie Sommers and a sterling rhythm section. (Available from Camard Records, [818] 784- 9642). . . . Moving beyond Passover, Yiddishkayt Los Angeles presents its second countywide celebration of Yiddish art and culture--”YK2! The New Face of Yiddish Culture--A Festival for the Next 1,000 Years”--May 14-21. The series ranges across music, vaudeville, theater and art. Information: (323) 692-8151.

A different take on Passover will be on display Sunday at 4 p.m. when Alan Eder & Friends perform “Reggae Passover: Songs of Freedom” at Temple Isaiah, 10345 W. Pico Blvd. Information: https://www.reggaepassover.com.