![]() ![]() Astrud spoke English, along with a handful of other languages, in addition to her native Portuguese.Īstrud was, at that time, not a professional singer although she had sung in a couple of clubs in Rio de Janeiro. What happened next is contested, with Getz claiming credit for suggesting that Astrud sing two tracks: “The Girl From Ipanema” by Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, and “Corcovado” or “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars” by Jobim only. ![]() João Gilberto arrived to meet Getz at a Manhattan recording studio accompanied by his then-22-year-old wife, Astrud. Jazz singer Tony Bennett was also an early champion of the genre, arriving home from a 1961 trip to Rio de Janiero with an armful of bossa records, and he may have inspired Getz to collaborate with some stars of the genre. Before Getz’s “Jazz Samba,” the 1959 hit Franco-Brazilian movie “ Black Orpheus,” with its theme “ Manhã de Carnaval,” had introduced the genre to a global audience – the film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a best foreign language Oscar in the U.S. The foray in bossa nova with two established stars of the genre was going to be his next move.īy then, many American music lovers were already somewhat familiar with bossa nova. Getz, in search of a new sound, had had huge success with his 1962 album, “ Jazz Samba,” the only jazz album that had ever hit No. was waning in popularity, with other genres, such as rock ‘n’ roll, starting to attract more fans. Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesĪt that time, jazz in the U.S. In 1963, American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz invited João Gilberto and Jobim to record a jazz-bossa album with him in New York.Īmerican saxophonist Stan Getz, photographed in the mid-1960s. Compared to samba, bossa nova featured a more relaxed rhythm, with an emphasis on harmonic melodies that João Gilberto and composer Antônio Carlos Jobim had drawn from American jazz. The genre had appeared in Rio de Janeiro in 1958, when João Gilberto invented a new beat on his guitar out of the traditional samba. When bossa went bigĪstrud Gilberto and “The Girl from Ipanema” marked a turning point in bossa nova. In 1966, in the only major performance she gave in her home country, she was booed. Astrud Gilberto didn’t set out to be an ambassador of bossa nova, the laid-back Brazilian musical genre with rhythms recognizable to music lovers around the world.Īccording to Gilberto, who died on June 5, 2023, at the age of 83, she wasn’t expecting to be on the 1964 recording of “ The Girl from Ipanema” – the song for which she is best remembered.Īt the time of the recording, she wasn’t even a professional singer.īut Gilberto’s breathy singing voice – almost a whisper, with no hint of a vibrato – helped catapult the song, the singer and bossa nova to the forefront of international pop music.īut while she went on to achieve global fame, back home in Brazil, Gilberto was never given the respect that I believe her talent deserved. ![]()
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