Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto

Released - March 1964

Genre - Jazz

Producer - Creed Taylor

Selected Personnel - Stan Getz (Tenor Saxophone); Joao Gilberto (Guitar/Vocals); Antonio Carlos Jobim (Piano); Sabastiao Neto (Bass); Milton Banana (Drums); Astrud Gilberto (Vocals)

Standout Track - The Girl From Ipanema

Best known as the album that gave us "The Girl From Ipanema," one of the most playfully intimate and iconic songs of all time, and therefore as the album that launched the career of one of the biggest stars in samba and bossa nova, Astrud Gilberto, Getz/Gilberto is far more than a springboard for one excellent song, but one of the greatest examples of this excellent and often-overlooked genre. Traditional Latin music had become a fixation of American jazz musicians in the late 50s and early 60s, but it took an American musician who was already a household name to really propel it into the limelight. Stan Getz had recorded some music inspired by Latin bossa nova, and, unusually for such ventures at the time, the work he produced was actively enjoyed and encouraged by the Latin community themselves rather than dismissed as derivative or lacking the essence of the original. When legendary pianist composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and the great guitarist Joao Gilberto, one of the earliest practitioners of bossa nova, responded positively to Getz's work, it soon engendered a situation he must have considered a dream come true - the opportunity to record an album between the three of them.

Ultimately, it's not Getz that really stands out on this album, but Gilberto himself. Getz's saxophone lines provide pleasant decoration over Jobim's lazily romantic piano parts and Gilberto's gentle strumming, but it's the rhythms and harmonies themselves, effortlessly condensed in Gilberto's beautifully simple guitar parts, that form the softly beating heart of this record. Gilberto's vocal delivery is also spot-on for these songs, being soft and non-committal almost to the point of being throwaway. The music here barely even needs to try to sound deeply romantic and intimate and summery, it's encapsulated in every note and harmony. Then there's Gilberto's wife Astrud, who was called in at the last minute to sing a verse of "The Girl From Ipanema" in English as Joao's English was patchy at best. Her performance has become one of the most iconic in history, and spawned a long-running career as a jazz singer in her own right, her performance of "Meditation" being another classic.

Although I was of course familiar with "The Girl From Ipanema" from a very young age, I only listened to this album all the way through for the first time about a year ago and expected to find a collection of fairly forgettable jazz and bossa nova workouts providing flimsy support to the obvious standout track, but every song here does just as good a job as that classic, making up one of the most perfect pieces of easy listening ever assembled.

Track Listing:

1. The Girl From Ipanema (Antonio Carlos Jobim; Vinicius De Moraes & Norman Gimbel)

2. Doralice (Dorival Caymmi & Antonio Almeida)

3. P'ra Machucar Meu Coracao (Ary Barroso)

4. Desafinado (Antonio Carlos Jobim & Newton Mendonca)

5. Corcovado (Antonio Carlos Jobim & Gene Lees)

6. So Danco Samba (Antonio Carlos Jobim & Vinicius De Moraes)

7. O Grande Amor (Antonio Carlos Jobim & Vinicius De Moraes)

8. Vivo Sonhando (Antonio Carlos Jobim)