Astrud Gilberto (née Astrud Weinert) died a couple of days ago at the age of 83. We love Bossa Nova and were sad that a superstar forerunner like her passed away.
She recorded the original “Girl from Ipanema” at 22 which became a big hit in 1963. The song earned a Grammy award for the song of the year, and popularized Brazilian Bossa Nova worldwide. Remarkably, the song become the second-most recorded song in popular music, the first being The Beatle’s “Yesterday”. New York Times has created a playlist on Spotify with a selection of 6 memorable Astrud Gilberto songs. A Spotify subscription is required to listen to the full length of each tune, but you can play the samples without a subscription.
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While she was from a musical family, her recording happened by chance as she was accompanying her husband Joao Gilberto to work on a jazz album – “Getz/Gilberto” in New York with saxophonist Stan Getz and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim. The song (”Garota de Ipanema”) composed earlier in 1962 by Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, was supposedly sung solely by a male performer. A version of the song released in 1964 as a single featured only her vocals and not her husband’s, and a shorter saxophone solo passage. The album Getz/Gilberto also won a Grammy as record of the year with Astrud appearing on other tracks. However, Stan Getz took the credit for “discovering” her and cut her out of the royalties for the globally successful song. She was only acknowledged as a guest singer in a follow-on live collaboration with Getz.
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See these articles for the full story of Astrud Gilberto and her music.
Astrud Gilberto, 83, Dies; Shot to Fame With ‘The Girl From Ipanema’
Astrud Gilberto – 6 essential songs
‘He made sure that she got nothing’: The sad story of Astrud Gilberto, the face of bossa nova
In early 2000’s, we were exploring EDM-influenced Brazilian and Argentinian music, and became fans of Bebel Gilberto. She is the daughter of Joao Gilberto from a second marriage, the stepdaughter of Astrud Gilberto. We heard her initially in the AIDS charity compilation album – Red Hot + Rio (1996). This album also included a duet by Astrud Gilberto and George Michael (from Wham!) of the song Desafinado, another hit from the Getz/Gilberto album. The later 1996 version is unfortunately not available on Spotify.
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Bebel Gilberto’s first 3 albums Tanto Tempo (2000), Bebel Gilberto (2004), and Momento (2007) are among our favorites at the time.
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It was mentioned in a tribute that Astrud’s far-reaching impact is reflected in the subsequent generation of female pop singers (such as Sade, Tracy Thorn (in Everything But The Girl) and Basia) who evokes her whispery, husky yet tender and demure vocal style. We picked several songs here to illustrate the point.
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Incidentally, we have included Tracy Thorn and Basia in our last Random Moment playlist – #14 – All Around The World.
We think Astrud also indirectly enabled a subgenre of bossa nova that covers popular songs of a different style, such as rock and reggae. This approach birthed an entire series of CDs (e.g., Bossa n’ Marley, Bossa n’ Stones), each one offering a unique fusion of bossa nova with a genre or a band, and at that time circa 2006, we heard them everywhere in bars and cafes at holiday destinations.
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The Girl from Ipanema, Thank you for the music.