July 2023 Playlist: Astrud Gilberto
This month we feature the music of Astrud Gilberto, a Brazilian musical icon, who passed away last month at 83. With her delicate yet soulful voice, she soared to international fame through her timeless hit "The Girl from Ipanema” and largely defined how bossa nova music would be interpreted.
The girl from ipanema
Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janeiro
Although Heloisa Pinheiro was Tom Jobim’s muse for The Girl from Ipanema, the “girl” for so many is that voice, Astrud’s voice. The song kicks off the landmark 1964 album Getz/Gilberto and starts with Astrud’s then-husband João Gilberto plucking a simple syncopated guitar rhythm and singing dim-dum-dum before going into the first verse in Portuguese. Whether we understand Portuguese or not, the understated force of João Gilberto’s voice tells us all we need to know: a man is lovesick–saddened, longing, and melancholic about a love he cannot have. And then, at 1:21, we see why as we too are drawn in as Astrud describes, and becomes, the scene: “tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes walking, and when she passes, each one she passes goes aye.” And too are left forlorn, “for each day that she walks to the sea, she looks straight ahead not at he.”
Although this song has been recorded countless times; filling countless elevators and shopping aisles, this remains the definitive version, an ageless masterpiece that is capable of transporting listeners over a half-century later.
Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)
Getz/Gilberto, Verve Records, 1964
The opening track to side two of the Getz/Gilberto album. An opening A minor 6 chord, and then that voice again: “Quiet nights of quiet stars...” the beautiful melancholy of bossa nova. Corcovado is Astrud’s other appearance on Getz/Gilberto. At the time, she was not a professional singer but was just accompanying her husband João at a 1963 recording session with Stan Getz. At João’s request, she took the English verses of The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado. These two songs would launch her career, one that would make her an international star as she laid in place a foundation for how bossa nova would be interpreted.
Água de Beber
Astrud Gilberto with Tom Jobim
Following the success of The Girl from Ipanema (in the initially released version, the verses her husband sang were cut, leaving her as the sole vocalist) Astrud recorded her first solo album: The Astrud Gilberto Album. Comprising mostly songs by Tom Jobim, the album, is a bossa nova classic, and one of those albums where no skipping of tracks is needed. Astrud’s lilting melody coupled with Jobim’s velvety trailing vocals and a syncopated rhythms make for a definitive version of this Jobim classic.
Fly Me to the Moon
Buzz Aldrin on the moon, achieving Kennedy’s goal of reaching the moon by the end of the decade. Source: NASA
When Frank Sinatra recorded a song, his version usually became the version, and that is largely the case with Fly Me to the Moon. In the context of Kennedy’s moonshot and the Apollo missions of the era, the energy and straight swing of Sintra’s 1964 version seem more a command than a request. Astrud’s version, released a year after Frank’s, is not a command but rather a wistful plea to go far away–away from the turbulence and violence of the 1960s or away from one's inner turbulence–to a simpler and more peaceful place.
READ ON
New York TIme Obituary for Astrud
1964 Performance of The Girl from Ipanema with Stan Getz
Book: Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World by Ruy Castro