Bryan Daniel McCann - João Gilberto and Stan Getzs Getz/Gilberto

Getz/Gilberto

33 1/3 Global

33 1/3 Global , a series related to but independent from 33 1/3 , takes the format of the original series of short, music-based books and brings the focus to music throughout the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese, Brazilian, and European music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

33 1/3 Japan

Series Editor: Noriko Manabe

Spanning a range of artists and genresfrom the 1960s rock of Happy End to technopop band Yellow Magic Orchestra, the Shibuya-kei of Cornelius, classic anime series Cowboy Bebop, J-Pop/EDM hybrid Perfume, and vocaloid star Hatsune Miku33 1/3 Japan is a series devoted to in-depth examination of Japanese albums of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Books in the Series

Supercells Supercell featuring Hatsune Miku by Keisuke Yamada

Yoko Kannos Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack by Rose Bridges

Perfumes GAME by Patrick St. Michel

33 1/3 Brazil

Series Editor: Jason Stanyek

Covering the genres of samba, tropiclia, rock, hip hop, forr, bossa nova, heavy metal and funk, among others, 33 1/3 Brazil is a series devoted to in-depth examination of the most important Brazilian albums of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Books in the Series

Caetano Velosos A Foreign Sound by Barbara Browning

Joo Gilberto and Stan Getzs Getz/Gilberto by Bryan McCann

Tim Maias Tim Maia Racional Vols. 1 & 2 by Allen Thayer

Getz/Gilberto

Bryan McCann

Contents

I would like to thank Jason Stanyek, editor of the 33 13 Brazil series, for soliciting this manuscript and encouraging me throughout. Jasons careful comments on my musical analysis were particularly vital. Thanks also to Leah Babb-Rosenfeld, Katherine De Chant, and everyone else at Bloomsbury for their help.

Anthony Deldonna, comrade-in-arms and co-teacher, provided sage advice and a keen critical ear. My thanks to colleagues in the History Department at Georgetown University for creating a vibrant community of historical inquiry, and to those in the Music Department for making a social and cultural historian feel welcome.

Chris Dunn, Charles Perrone, and Edsio Fernandes asked incisive questions and pointed me toward key sources. Tory Broadus, Alyssa Graham, and Doug Graham provided valuable encouragement on the draft. Michael Abate encouraged me to take the project on. I am grateful to the community of scholars of Brazilian music, particularly Ruy Castro, Srgio Cabral, Jairo Severiano, Carlo Pianta, David Treece, Carlos Sandroni, Jos Roberto Zan, Andy Connell, Fred Moehn, and Daniela Thompson, for the work that helped guide this inquiry. Long live WPRB-FM, where I heard most of this music for the first time.

I am forever grateful to my family, Helena Moraski, Jay McCann, Sean McCann, and Moira Moderelli, and especially to Mary Hunter, Booker McCann, and Seamus McCann. You make it all meaningful.

Getz/Gilberto is the album people think of when they think of bossa nova. (People outside of Brazil, at leastBrazilians tend to have a more complicated relationship to the record.) How did it achieve this iconic status? And why did the albumparticularly the single The Girl from Ipanemabecome a global pop smash in 1964 and 1965? The answer to the first question is Joo Gilberto. The answer to the second is Astrud Gilberto.

Joo Gilberto, as both singer and guitarist, was the most important figure in creating the sound of bossa nova. Getz/Gilberto captured his sound more completely than his previous Brazilian recordings had, and introduced him to a broad, international audience. Gilberto made several other great albums, and his many fans may quibble about which is his best. But there is no question that Getz/Gilberto is his best known, the one he is identified with in most of the world.

Joo Gilbertos importance in creating the definitive sound of bossa nova notwithstanding, it was Astrud Gilberto who made the album a smash hit. A record featuring Joo Gilberto along with tenor sax player Stan Getz might have climbed the jazz charts on its own. But it was the participation of Astrud that enabled it to cross over to pop success. Astrud provided the ineffable allure that made the album irresistible.

This is unsettling for many bossaphiles. Astrud was by far the least experienced participant at A&R Studios on W 48 St in Manhattan for the recording session, on March 18 and 19, 1963. (The album was not released until March of the following year.) She was twenty-two (b.1940), had been married to Joo for three years, had sung in public only a few times, and had never made a record. Joo, born in 1931, had been a star since 1958, when he recorded the 78 rpm single Chega de Saudade, widely considered the first bossa nova recording. Antonio Carlos Jobim, better known as Tom, composed Chega de Saudade, along with lyricist Vinicius de Moraes. Jobim was nearly as decisive as Gilberto himself in creating the genre of bossa nova. Jobim played piano on Getz/Gilberto , composed six of its eight songs, and served as musical director. At thirty-six (he was born in 1927 and died in 1994), he was an experienced hand in all aspects of the recording industry and had a long string of popular successes in Brazil to his name.

Stan Getz was the best known of the participants in the United States. He had emerged as a soloist in the big bands of the 1940s and gained prominence as a leader in the cool jazz scene of the 1950s. He was only thirty-six (he was born in 1927 and died in 1991), but was already on his second comeback. Producer Creed Taylor had already demonstrated his own keen ear and made a name for himself by founding the cutting-edge Impulse! jazz label in 1960. And he had a recent commercial success under his belt with his production of the 1962 album Jazz Samba , featuring Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd playing bossa nova, backed by a band of US jazz musicians.

The other musicians on Getz/Gilberto were little known outside the nightclubs and recording studios of Rio de Janeiro, but were experienced professionals. Milton Banana was one of the drummers who had defined the sound of bossa nova percussion on the drum kit. Sebastio, or Tio, Neto was the go-to bass player on Rios bossa scene. (As a curiosity, Tommy Williams, who did not play on the session, was credited on the original album, instead of Neto.) Both were known for their unerring, restrained accompaniment.

It was the relatively inexperienced Astrud who caught the publics attention, however, and who made the record instantly recognizable. Listeners all over the United States, and then around much of the world, called their local radio stations to request the record by that Brazilian girl. Not everyone was happy about this. Many established Brazilian musicians never accepted Astruds success. They portrayed her as lucky rather than talented, in the right place at the right time. They said it could have been any girl from Ipanema in the studio that day. (Astrud Gilberto was originally from Bahia, in Northeastern Brazil, but the hit single marked her as the girl from Ipanema, nonetheless.)

In retrospect, it is clear that Astrud Gilbertos apparent lack of polish contributed to her appeal. She sounds fresh and unrehearsed on the record. She presents a blank canvas for the projection of the listeners fantasiesfantasies about Rio and its sensual delights, and about Astrud herself. Those who resented her success mistook her simplicity for lack of talent. But simplicity was her talent. She knew what not to do.