Product Description

The record that started the bossa nova craze of the mid-'60s, GETZ-GILBERTO is a justly recognised classic. The disc's success is attributable to its spectacular personnel: the man who basically invented bossa nova, Antonio Carlos Jobim; the man who defined and perfected the genre, Joao Gilberto; his charmingly waifish-sounding wife, Astrud Gilberto; and American tenor saxophonist extraordinaire Stan Getz. Jobim plays guitar and piano; Getz provides remarkably lyrical, complementary lead lines, and Joao Gilberto plays and sings in Portuguese with the most understated, romantic, and artful vocal delivery imaginable. It's a hard combination to beat.
Opening track "The Girl From Ipanema", a breezy, infectious Jobim composition with vocals by both Joao and Astrud, became one of the biggest (and most recognisable) hits of the era, and the single most popular Brazilian tune in America. Theexquisite shuffle "Desafinado", the Joao-Astrud duet "Corcovado", and the eminently grooving "So Danco Samba" have goneon to become standards of both bossa nova and jazz, and theversions here are definitive. Getz's sensitive playing blends seamlessly with the deceptively casual rhythmic sophistication of Jobim, Gilberto, and percussionist Milton Banana. The material, the musicianship, and the gentle, minimal arrangements and production ensure that GETZ/GILBERTO will never date, age, or tire. It's a perfect album.

Track Listing

1. Girl From Ipanema - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim/Astrud Gilberto
2. Doralice - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim
3. Para Machuchar Meu Coracao - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim
4. Desafinado - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim
5. Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim/Astrud Gilberto
6. So Danco Samba - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim
7. O Grande Amor - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim
8. Vivo Sonhando (Dreamer) - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim
9. Girl From Ipanema - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim/Astrud Gilberto
10. Corcovado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) - Getz, Stan & Joao Gilberto/Antonio Carlos Jobim/Astrud Gilberto

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3630 in Music
• Released on: 1999-05-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Amazon.co.uk Review
Originally released in March 1964, this collaboration between saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist João Gilberto came at seemingly the end of the bossa nova craze Getz himself had sparked in 1962 with Jazz Samba, his release with American guitarist Charlie Byrd. Jazz Samba remains the only jazz album to reach number one in the pop charts. In fact, the story goes that Getz had to push for the release of Getz/Gilberto since the company did not want to compete with its own hit; it was a good thing he did. Getz/Gilberto, which featured composer Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano, not only yielded the hit "Girl from Ipanema" (sung by Astrud Gilberto, the guitarist's wife, who had no professional experience) but also "Corcovado" ("Quiet Night")--an instant standard, and the definitive version of "Desafinado". Getz/Gilberto spent 96 weeks in the charts and won four Grammys. It remains one of those rare cases in popular music where commercial success matches artistic merit. Bossa nova's "cool" aesthetic--with its understated rhythms, rich harmonies, and slightly detached delivery--had been influenced, in part, by cool jazz. Gilberto in particular was a Stan Getz fan. Getz, with his lyricism, the bittersweet longing in his sound, and his restrained but strong swing, was the perfect fit. His lines, at once decisive and evanescent, focus the rest of the group's performance without overpowering. A classic. --Fernando Gonzalez

Customer Reviews

A pivotal album of the 20th Century
Antonio Carlos Jobim goes down with Lennon/McCartney, Gershwin, Amstrong as one of the most influential songwriter/stylists of the 20th century.

To judge the album on its own merits is one thing. Getz turns in small but perfectly formed solos. Astrid Gilberto's voice is ravishing, complementing husband Joao's voice with that incredibly restrained vulnerability that is the essence of Bossa. It is an album of incredible tenderness and instrospection. The studio atmosphere is very intimate with an almost homespun quality. For me its a five star album in its own right.

However, this album has a far larger significance, in the way that Sargeant Pepper did. It changed everything and set off ripples that are still reverberating today.

Each of these songs have been covered thousands of times by thousands of artists and continue to be a top staple for jazz as its played all over the world. They have spilled over from jazz into other mediums. They introduced the wider world to the music of Brazil. Arguably the earlier Getz/Byrd, album put Brazil on the wider musical map but it was this album that exposed it in all its exotic glory.

Brazil is a land in which there are as many genres of music as there are in the rest of the world put together. The influence of Jobim and Bossa and their quintessence as captured in these songs, on this album, continues to be a point of departure and return for any number of musical offshoots in their home country, and beyond, to this very day.

From a musicological point of view the impact of this album is unprecedented. There is no other album which has so vividly alerted such a huge proportion of the world to what was going on in a previously little known lesser part of the world, the repercussions of which are still playing out, with vivacity and freshness, almost fifty years later.

Sax Max
Bossa Nova was and is not to everybody's taste. Many jazz aficianados can't stand Astrud Gilberto's singing either. The thing with this session in particular, however, is Stan Getz's playing. There is only one word for it - divine! Which is why I suspect there are so many accolades for this CD. The brevity and melodiousness of his ideas is quite exceptional, not so on many other examples of his work before or after.

I love jazz and I like this, but I can't say I can listen to Bossa Nova all the time. Stan Getz on this CD, however, I don't think I'll tire of...

Getting in the groove
Great album for bossa nova. Fun to listen and get in the groove of dreaming of Brazil.. or mellow enough to have in the background for a wine party.