Astrud Gilberto was probably the most well-known of the three great ladies of Brazilian song that we recently lost, and whose albums I presented here. She was also the least likely to become an international sensation, as she came to prominence by accident; the young housewife of guitarist João Gilberto just happened to be present at a recording session for a collaborative album by American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian bossa nova stars Antonio Carlos Jobim (piano) and João Gilberto. To help the LP's commercial chances in the US, Getz's side had prepared some English lyrics, which João turned out to be unable to sing. Thankfully Astrud's English was remarkably better, so it was her who sang the English part in the two bilingual songs "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado". To the musicians involved she was still a nobody; she got a flat fee of $120 and wasn't mentioned in the album credits at all. But the public disagreed. "The Girl From Ipanema" single rose to No.5 in the charts, while the Getz/Gilberto LP (1964) gradually broke all sales records, starting off an international bossa nova craze. Everyone fell in love with Astrud's soft, naive vocals, and kept asking for more. Cue Getz Au Go Go (1964), credited to "the New Stan Getz Quartet featuring Astrud Gilberto". No Jobim or João but a great band nevertheless, including Gary Burton on vibraphone and Kenny Burrell on guitar. Purportedly a live album cut at New York's famous Cafe Au Go Go, it's actually a jumble of live and studio sessions. Some of Getz's sax and all of Astrud's vocals were recorded in studio and overdubbed after the fact; it nevertheless sounds fantastic. The Essential Astrud Gilberto, issued in Europe in 1984 to capitalize on a bossa nova revival going on at the time, includes two songs from Getz Au Go Go, Jobim's "One Note Samba" and "It Might as Well Be Spring", the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein composition that won the Oscar Award for Best Original Song in 1945. From there on, Verve Records took over Astrud's career, pairing her with some of their best musicians, arrangers and composers, trying to capitalize on the bossa nova fad. It didn't matter that her voice didn't have a lot of power, range, or versatility. They had other singers like that. Ella Fitzgerald. Sarah Vaughan. Nina Simone. That class of singers. Compared to them, Astrud was a one-trick pony. Her renditions of the great American songbook are absolutely charming in their own way but they don't stand comparison with those by the aforementioned artists. Her frail and nostalgic delivery, punctuated by soft scatting, works nevertheless fabulously on the bossa nova cuts, songs by Jobim, Luiz Bonfá and ex-husband João - soon after the Getz collaborations, their marriage collapsed with Astrud staying permanently in USA and João remarrying and returning to Brazil soon after. The compilers here rightfully put the emphasis in the Brazilian element, which takes up more than 80% of this compilation, while the parent albums whence these songs came were at best a 50/50 mix of bossa nova and easy listening jazz. The Astrud Gilberto Album (1965) is her first, and probably best, LP as it contains Jobim's songs and guitar alongside some great musicians and rich strings and reeds arrangements. "Meditation", "O Morro Nao Tem Vez", and the playful "Agua De Beber" are included here. The next one The Shadow Of Your Smile (1965) follows the 50/50 approach, featuring 5 selections written by Bonfá, including the wistful "Tristeza" and "Manha De Carnival" as well as mid tempo "O Ganso" featuring Astrud scatting over a tastefully arranged Latin piece. Upbeat "Take Me To Aruanda" and a version of Sinatra hit "Fly Me To The Moon" round up the selections from that album. The next one (Look to the Rainbow, 1966) was apparently arranged by the great Gil Evans. We only get one short Latin song from it, João's "Bim Bom". The same year's A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness is a collaboration with organist Walter Wanderley. Astrud's vocals here very good; Wanderley is likewise good but his organ playing roots this more to 60's lounge music than jazz. We get three selections from this album: "Goodbye Sadness (Tristeza)", "So Nice (Summer Samba)", and the short, bittersweet, "A Certain Smile". Last of the albums anthologized here is Beach Samba (1967). It contained a more-than-usual percentage of contemporary pop material, but at least "Beach Samba (Bossa Na Praia)" had all the marks of her best work. By this time, bossa nova had fallen out of fashion completely in the US. Verve backed the singer for a few more albums containing mostly covers of contemporary pop hits, but the compilers steer way from those. Which is just as well; I mean this LP is called The Essential Astrud Gilberto, and no-one would argue that her covers of songs by The Beatles, Nilsson, Lovin' Spoonful and The Doors (!) justify that title. But what we do have here is some of the most charming, irresistibly fresh, beautiful music made in the 60's. That's enough of a legacy for anyone!
***** for The Girl From Ipanema, Meditation, O Morro Nao Tem Vez, Corcovado, Agua De Beber, Goodbye Sadness (Tristeza), Take Me To Aruanda, So Nice (Summer Samba), Tristeza
**** for A Certain Smile, Beach Samba (Bossa Na Praia), Bim-Bom, One Note Samba, O Ganso, Fly Me To The Moon, It Might As Well Be Spring, Manha De Carnival
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