Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto

[Wardsweb]

Artists - Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto
Title - Getz/Gilberto
Year of Release - 1963
Record Label - Verve
Genre - Jazz

Here is another classic. You have all heard "The Girl from Ipanema", but did you know it was written about the seventeen year old Helô Pinheiro. She inspired Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes in 1962 to write this song. Sitting in a cafe they saw her every day going to the beach of Ipanema, a district of Rio de Janeiro. Also, on the album the girl singing is Astrud Gilberto, Joao's wife. She and Getz's wife, Monica, were in the studio to listen. There is some debate over who suggested Astrud try singing a verse; Stan, Joao or Monica, but whoever did, it created one of the most memorable songs in history. This is only one of the jewels on this album.

 

[Burke]

Absolute classic, everyone should have a copy.

The account I read said she was 14, and they were watching her walk home from school. The bar where they wrote the song is mostly residential (high rise condos) and one block off the beach. Great place for dinner and drinks.

The music is exquiste, my favorite album.

 

[risabet]

I have both the Verve OP and a 180g reissue, Both are excellent sounding and of course the music is just great. Songwriting at its finest.

 

[Jeff Zaret]

I have the original vinyl release which is still amazing.


Jeff

 

[jfm]

Great disc. Aside from showcasing Astrud, it's also one of the best recordings of a male singer, a good reference for getting the blend between woofer and panel right. Stan's tenor sax work is glorious. I also particularly like that consistent percussion beat located in the left corner of the room.

 

[Dreamer]

I picked up the CD of this recording last week. Verve's "Desert Island Disc" series...

It's a very nice translation to CD. I have a few other Verve CD re-releases of old recordings, and some are good, and some not so good. The "Definitive Dinah Washington" is pretty noisy and almost unlistenable in places...

But this Getz/Gilberto CD is VERY nice. Clean, quiet, and the ambience and stereo imaging is VERY wide and 3-d. It's a little too "50's lounge lizard" to play without eliciting giggles when the 22-year old stepdaughters are around, but it's nice "Sunday Afternoon Music". And any time Getz blows, I MUST listen, being a sax player myself since 4th grade (it took me until I was a Sophomore in college before I could copy that breathy, raspy sound that Getz has...)

--Richard

 

[tav1]

I have this on CD and love it too. My only complaint is that the sax comes in WAY TOO STRONG on the solo in Girl from...... You can hear every mechanical noise on the sax, very revealing. Anyone agree about the volume of the sax on the solo? Just curious.
Torry V.