On November 21, 1962, the first North American concert of authentic bossa nova music was presented at Carnegie Hall. It featured performances by Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sérgio Mendes, among others. The following year record producer Creed Taylor introduced Jobim and Gilberto to Stan Getz and the seed for the three musicians to work together was planted. The recording of Getz/Gilberto commenced on March 18, 1963, at A&R Recording Studios in New York City and were completed the following day.
Yeah, this is that album, the one with The Girl From Ipanema on it, the song that introduced most of us to bossa nova music via the sultry and sexy voice of Astrud Gilberto, who wasn't even supposed to be on the record. She was Joao Gilberto's wife at the time and had never sung professionally before. But Gilberto was said to have been nervous at the prospect of singing the English translations of two of the album's songs - The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) - and refused to leave his hotel room. Astrud was asked to try to coax him into the studio and it is likely during this negotiation that she was invited to sing the English parts in her husband's stead. Her breathy and somewhat shy vocals became the catalyst for the album’s popularity. Without them, this would have been a superb album of Brazilian music, but nothing much beyond that. It's something that just happened and it's how legends are born. You can't plan that sort of thing.
This LP became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, seeing more than 2 million copies in sales in 1964 alone. Everybody's mom and dad had a copy, and everybody's mom and dad twirled around the living room while the record spun on the record player, which was probably one of those cabinet-type things you see in antique shops these days. That's how it was in my house, anyway.
Included in Rolling Stone's list of best albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto was acclaimed by music critics who praised Astrud Gilberto's vocals and the album's overall groovy groove. It received Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group and Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical.
It was the first non-American album to win a Grammy for Album of the Year, in 1965.
My copy is the recently released and very highly recommended Analogue Productions "Acoustic Sounds Series" pressing, which is a sonically stunning all-analogue reproduction. It's also a pleasure to look at and hold in my hands. I used to have the 1994 Mobile Fidelity pressing, but traded it away about a year ago because I didn't think it sounded much better than the 1997 Verve CD reissue. There aren't many trades I regret but that might have been one of them, so when Analogue Productions announced this release I immediately pre-ordered it and I'm glad I did. It is - by far - the best sounding version of this recording I have ever heard. The vinyl is dead quiet and the packaging is as good as it gets. The Verve CD is still good for the included bonus tracks, so I'll keep it - not that I could get rid of it even if I wanted to. Nobody actually collects CDs anymore.
At the time of this LP's release, interest in jazz music in general was on the wane due to the popularity of rock and roll. But in 1961, singer Tony Bennett made a trip to Brazil with bassist Don Payne and the two musicians became familiar with the stylings of modern Brazilian popular music. Payne brought numerous Brazilian records home with him and, so the story goes, showed them to his friend, Stan Getz, who loved what he heard and was influenced enough by it to release two albums - Jazz Samba and Big Band Bossa Nova - the following year.
Although Getz-Gilberto is now a long-revered classic, it didn't birth easy. According to Ruy Castro, a Brazilian journalist known for his writings on bossa nova, Gilberto and Getz often disagreed on which was the best take of certain tracks and left the final choice to producer Creed Taylor. During one session, Gilberto - who did not speak English - grew impatient with Getz and told Jobim, in Spanish, "Tell this gringo he is an idiot". Jobim, claiming he was translating what Gilberto had said, told Getz, "Stan, Joao is saying that his dream always was to record with you".
The artistic differences between the two men resulted in Getz and his quartet appearing on one side of the record and Gilberto on the other. And Ipanema almost got butchered. Norman Gimbel, who had written the English lyrics for the song, felt the reference to Ipanema Beach wouldn't mean anything to Americans and wanted to remove all reference to it from the song. But Jobim insisted on keeping them in, and producer Taylor just shrugged and ended up shelving the project for nearly a year because he feared it might be a commercial failure. Ipanema? What the hell is that?
I'm glad Jobim won the argument.
The artwork featured on the cover of the album is by Puerto Rican artist Olga Albizu, an abstract expressionist who also designed the covers of several other bossa nova albums by Getz.
Without reservation, this pressing of this record is …
On November 21, 1962, the first North American concert of authentic bossa nova music was presented at Carnegie Hall. It featured performances by Joao Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sérgio Mendes, among others. The following year record producer Creed Taylor introduced Jobim and Gilberto to Stan Getz and the seed for the three musicians to work together was planted. The recording of Getz/Gilberto commenced on March 18, 1963, at A&R Recording Studios in New York City and were completed the following day.
Yeah, this is that album, the one with The Girl From Ipanema on it, the song that introduced most of us to bossa nova music via the sultry and sexy voice of Astrud Gilberto, who wasn't even supposed to be on the record. She was Joao Gilberto's wife at the time and had never sung professionally before. But Gilberto was said to have been nervous at the prospect of singing the English translations of two of the album's songs - The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) - and refused to leave his hotel room. Astrud was asked to try to coax him into the studio and it is likely during this negotiation that she was invited to sing the English parts in her husband's stead. Her breathy and somewhat shy vocals became the catalyst for the album’s popularity. Without them, this would have been a superb album of Brazilian music, but nothing much beyond that. It's something that just happened and it's how legends are born. You can't plan that sort of thing.
This LP became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, seeing more than 2 million copies in sales in 1964 alone. Everybody's mom and dad had a copy, and everybody's mom and dad twirled around the living room while the record spun on the record player, which was probably one of those cabinet-type things you see in antique shops these days. That's how it was in my house, anyway.
Included in Rolling Stone's list of best albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto was acclaimed by music critics who praised Astrud Gilberto's vocals and the album's overall groovy groove. It received Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group and Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical.
It was the first non-American album to win a Grammy for Album of the Year, in 1965.
My copy is the recently released and very highly recommended Analogue Productions "Acoustic Sounds Series" pressing, which is a sonically stunning all-analogue reproduction. It's also a pleasure to look at and hold in my hands. I used to have the 1994 Mobile Fidelity pressing, but traded it away about a year ago because I didn't think it sounded much better than the 1997 Verve CD reissue. There aren't many trades I regret but that might have been one of them, so when Analogue Productions announced this release I immediately pre-ordered it and I'm glad I did. It is - by far - the best sounding version of this recording I have ever heard. The vinyl is dead quiet and the packaging is as good as it gets. The Verve CD is still good for the included bonus tracks, so I'll keep it - not that I could get rid of it even if I wanted to. Nobody actually collects CDs anymore.
At the time of this LP's release, interest in jazz music in general was on the wane due to the popularity of rock and roll. But in 1961, singer Tony Bennett made a trip to Brazil with bassist Don Payne and the two musicians became familiar with the stylings of modern Brazilian popular music. Payne brought numerous Brazilian records home with him and, so the story goes, showed them to his friend, Stan Getz, who loved what he heard and was influenced enough by it to release two albums - Jazz Samba and Big Band Bossa Nova - the following year.
Although Getz-Gilberto is now a long-revered classic, it didn't birth easy. According to Ruy Castro, a Brazilian journalist known for his writings on bossa nova, Gilberto and Getz often disagreed on which was the best take of certain tracks and left the final choice to producer Creed Taylor. During one session, Gilberto - who did not speak English - grew impatient with Getz and told Jobim, in Spanish, "Tell this gringo he is an idiot". Jobim, claiming he was translating what Gilberto had said, told Getz, "Stan, Joao is saying that his dream always was to record with you".
The artistic differences between the two men resulted in Getz and his quartet appearing on one side of the record and Gilberto on the other. And Ipanema almost got butchered. Norman Gimbel, who had written the English lyrics for the song, felt the reference to Ipanema Beach wouldn't mean anything to Americans and wanted to remove all reference to it from the song. But Jobim insisted on keeping them in, and producer Taylor just shrugged and ended up shelving the project for nearly a year because he feared it might be a commercial failure. Ipanema? What the hell is that?
I'm glad Jobim won the argument.
The artwork featured on the cover of the album is by Puerto Rican artist Olga Albizu, an abstract expressionist who also designed the covers of several other bossa nova albums by Getz.
Without reservation, this pressing of this record is …
BONUS TRACK
Astrud Gilberto was born on March 29, 1940, and is not a girl from Ipanema. She is instead from Salvador, Bahia, in north-eastern Brazil.
She met Joao Gilberto through some musical friends and the two were married when she was 19 and he 28.
Her life changed forever in 1963 when she accompanied Joao to A&R Studios in Manhattan and ended up on the record he was recording with Stan Getz.
We first hear her in The Girl From Impanema, a song whose protagonist was a real life beauty named Helô Pinheiro, a teenager Jobim used to watch strolling Ipanema Beach while he drank at the nearby Veloso Bar.
Producer Creed Taylor, the man who signed John Coltrane for Impulse! Records in 1960, recalled that when he heard Astrud sing he knew the song was going to be a smash hit.
The song made Astrud a star, which seems to have caused a rift in her marriage. And Stan Getz - with whom Astrud later had an affair - said, in an interview with the UK magazine Jazz Professional in 1966, that, "when I first heard Astrud I thought there was something innocent and demure in her voice. She was just a housewife then, and I put her on that record because I wanted The Girl From Ipanema sung in English – which Joao couldn’t do. Ipanema was a hit and that was a lucky break for her.”
The condescending housewife remark still rankles Astrud all these years later. “The funny thing is that after my success, stories abound as to Stan Getz or Creed Taylor having discovered me, when in fact, nothing is further from the truth. I guess it made them look important and I suppose I should feel flattered, but I can’t help but feel annoyed at the fact that they resorted to lying!”
Astrud's rise to stardom was so quick and unexpected that it brought unfair criticism from journalists in Brazil, who portrayed her as simply being in the right place at the right time. But what's wrong with that?
The most high-profile recording of her latter-day career was with pop star George Michael. A friend told her that Michael - whom she knew nothing about - loved her singing. So she sent him a telegram and he came to hear her sing at Madison Square Garden. In 1996 Michael asked her to perform on a charity record for AIDS research and they recorded a version of Desafinado, in London.
Though The Girl from Ipanema has been covered by literally hundreds of artists including Frank Sinatra, Amy Winehouse and Madonna, the definitive version remains and will always be Astrud Gilberto's original, the one that forever crowned her the goddess of bossa nova.
Astrud Gilberto was born on March 29, 1940, and is not a girl from Ipanema. She is instead from Salvador, Bahia, in north-eastern Brazil.
She met Joao Gilberto through some musical friends and the two were married when she was 19 and he 28.
Her life changed forever in 1963 when she accompanied Joao to A&R Studios in Manhattan and ended up on the record he was recording with Stan Getz.
We first hear her in The Girl From Impanema, a song whose protagonist was a real life beauty named Helô Pinheiro, a teenager Jobim used to watch strolling Ipanema Beach while he drank at the nearby Veloso Bar.
Producer Creed Taylor, the man who signed John Coltrane for Impulse! Records in 1960, recalled that when he heard Astrud sing he knew the song was going to be a smash hit.
The song made Astrud a star, which seems to have caused a rift in her marriage. And Stan Getz - with whom Astrud later had an affair - said, in an interview with the UK magazine Jazz Professional in 1966, that, "when I first heard Astrud I thought there was something innocent and demure in her voice. She was just a housewife then, and I put her on that record because I wanted The Girl From Ipanema sung in English – which Joao couldn’t do. Ipanema was a hit and that was a lucky break for her.”
The condescending housewife remark still rankles Astrud all these years later. “The funny thing is that after my success, stories abound as to Stan Getz or Creed Taylor having discovered me, when in fact, nothing is further from the truth. I guess it made them look important and I suppose I should feel flattered, but I can’t help but feel annoyed at the fact that they resorted to lying!”
Astrud's rise to stardom was so quick and unexpected that it brought unfair criticism from journalists in Brazil, who portrayed her as simply being in the right place at the right time. But what's wrong with that?
The most high-profile recording of her latter-day career was with pop star George Michael. A friend told her that Michael - whom she knew nothing about - loved her singing. So she sent him a telegram and he came to hear her sing at Madison Square Garden. In 1996 Michael asked her to perform on a charity record for AIDS research and they recorded a version of Desafinado, in London.
Though The Girl from Ipanema has been covered by literally hundreds of artists including Frank Sinatra, Amy Winehouse and Madonna, the definitive version remains and will always be Astrud Gilberto's original, the one that forever crowned her the goddess of bossa nova.
