Artist: Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto
Album: Getz/Gilberto
Year: 1964
More bossa nova here courtesy of tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. This time he's fully immersed in the genre, surrounded by a cast of Brazilians including singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto, Gilberto's wife Astrud, and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim, the most famous of all bossa nova composers.
There's a direct line from this album (extremely popular in its day...a Grammy winner for Album of the Year) to some of the "alternative" offshoots of the 1990's--Stereolab aped this sound for all they could, taking it in various other directions, while others like Combustible Edison strove for authenticity.
Bossa nova has never been my favorite form of jazz. It's great for background music, it's great at evoking a particular time, place, and (dare I say) temperature. It's remarkably pleasant, pretty music. For me, it lacks (or at least what I've heard of it lacks) the depth that other jazz musicians were exploring around this time, artists like Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, and Charles Mingus providing more interesting (for lack of a better word) takes on the genre.
Getz/Gilberto is my favorite of the two Getz albums I've heard so far. The big difference between this one and Jazz Samba is that Getz/Gilberto has vocal accompaniment (provided by Joao Gilberto and his wife Astrud) and includes a smash hit in the form of "The Girl from Ipanema." This well-known jazz classic features the vocals of Astrud Gilberto, with her somewhat rudimentary take on the English lyrics and breathy, girlish voice launching her to stardom. "Desafinado," a cut from Jazz Samba, is reprised here. "Corcovado" and "Vivo Sonhando" are a couple other stellar selections here.
Like with Jazz Samba, I can find no fault with this album. The music is pleasant, Getz's sax fits the style perfectly, and there are some true gems located herein. These things alone make this album worthy of repeated listens, even if the depth of the music is somewhat lacking by contemporaneous standards.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
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