Dec 13, 2016

RhoDeo 1650 Roots

Hello,

The music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history, Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles such as samba, bossa nova, MPB, sertanejo, pagode, tropicalia, choro, maracatu, embolada (coco de repente), mangue bit, funk carioca (in Brazil simply known as Funk), frevo, forró, axé, brega, lambada, and Brazilian versions of foreign musical genres, such as Brazilian rock and rap.


Today's artist is was born Astrud Evangelina Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. She married João Gilberto in 1959 and emigrated to the United States in 1963, residing in the U.S. from that time. Astrud and João divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, American jazz saxophone player Stan Getz.... N'Joy

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The honey-toned chanteuse on the surprise Brazilian crossover hit "The Girl From Ipanema," Astrud Gilberto parlayed her previously unscheduled appearance (and professional singing debut) on the song into a lengthy career that resulted in nearly a dozen albums for Verve and a successful performing career that lasted into the '90s. Though her appearance at the studio to record "The Girl From Ipanema" was due only to her husband João, one of the most famed Brazilian artists of the century, Gilberto's singular, quavery tone and undisguised naïveté propelled the song into the charts and influenced a variety of sources in worldwide pop music.

Born in Bahia, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro at an early age. She'd had no professional musical experience of any kind until 1963, the year of her visit to New York with her husband, João Gilberto, in a recording session headed by Stan Getz. Getz had already recorded several albums influenced by Brazilian rhythms, and Verve teamed him with the cream of Brazilian music, Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto, for his next album. Producer Creed Taylor wanted a few English vocals for maximum crossover potential, and as it turned out, Astrud was the only Brazilian present with any grasp of the language. After her husband laid down his Portuguese vocals for the first verse of his and Jobim's composition, "The Girl From Ipanema," Astrud provided a hesitant, heavily accented second verse in English.

Not even credited on the resulting LP, Getz/Gilberto, Astrud finally gained fame over a year later, when "The Girl From Ipanema" became a number five hit in mid-1964. The album became the best-selling jazz album up to that point, and made Gilberto a star across America. Before the end of the year, Verve capitalized on the smash with the release of Getz Au Go Go, featuring a Getz live date with Gilberto's vocals added later. Her first actual solo album, The Astrud Gilberto Album, was released in May 1965. Though it barely missed the Top 40, the LP's blend of Brazilian classics and ballad standards proving quite infectious with easy listening audiences.

Though she never returned to the pop charts in America, Verve proved to be quite understanding for Astrud Gilberto's career, pairing her with ace arranger Gil Evans for 1966's Look to the Rainbow and Brazilian organist/arranger Walter Wanderley for the dreamy A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness, released later that year. She remained a huge pop star in Brazil for the rest of the 1960s and '70s, but gradually disappeared in America after her final album for Verve in 1969. In 1971, she released a lone album for CTI (with Stanley Turrentine) but was mostly forgotten in the U.S. until 1984, when "Girl From Ipanema" recharted in Britain on the tails of a neo-bossa craze. Gilberto gained worldwide distribution for 1987's Astrud Gilberto Plus the James Last Orchestra and 2002's Jungle.

Gilberto received the Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2002. In 1996, she contributed to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio produced by the Red Hot Organization, performing the song "Desafinado" along with George Michael. Although she did not officially retire, Gilberto announced in 2002, that she was taking "indefinite time off" from public performances.


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Two years after her underrated album on CTI Records, Astrud Gilberto's follow-up is her first attempt to be taken seriously, not as a singer -- she had that covered -- but as a songwriter, at a time when simply singing standards was seen as lacking. Her four songs on this ten-song album show she has a way with a melody, though obviously influenced by countrymen Milton Nascimento and Jorge Ben, and her producer Eumir Deodato. "Gingele" and "Zigy Zigy Za" are exactly the kind of riff-based tropicalismo that Ben and company were making popular around this time. "Take It Easy My Brother Charlie" is probably her best song here (covered over 20 years later by Kahimi Karie), though it is Ben who often gets the writing credit (here it's listed as Gilberto and associate producer David Jordan). Very few concessions are made to America; only "Daybreak (Walking Out of Yesterday)" comes from the pop world, with instrumentation and sound coming from south of the equator.



Astrud Gilberto - Now (flac 190mb)

01 Zigy Zigy Za 4:02
02 Make Love To Me 3:15
03 Baiao 2:55
04 Touching You 3:40
05 Gingele 4:00
06 Take It Easy My Brother Charlie 3:15
07 Where Have You Been? 3:00
08 General Da Banda 3:35
09 Bridges 3:45
10 Daybreak 2:45

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Despite her limitations, Astrud Gilberto is always nice to listen to, impersonating the whole bossa nova craze. Here she is accompanied by a the famous Japanese trombone player, Shigeharu Mukai as well as a lot of jazz or fusion musicians (Jorge Dalto is very good on the piano); The production is a bit 80s, but only by moments. Once it's cranked up in the you'll enjoy a great jazz album.



Astrud Gilberto, Shigeharu Mukai - So & So, Mukai Meets Gilberto   (flac  216mb)

01 Champagne & Caviar 3:38
02 Velas 5:39
03 Nos Dois 4:07
04 Berimbau 5:17
05 Miracle Of The Fishes 3:21
06 Terrafirme 5:25
07 Keep On Riding 5:15
08 Hold Me 3:56

Astrud Gilberto, Shigeharu Mukai - So & So, Mukai Meets Gilberto    (ogg   90mb)

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This collaboration with James Last and his orchestra is Astrud Gilberto's finest moment, an absolutely wonderful piece of music. The lush, eclectic instrumentation is complemented by her singing, sometimes criticized as being pretty but plain, unrangy, and without depth. On this recording, she retains a subdued aura but certainly shows versatility, jazziness, and occasionally passion, if not intensity. But blending, not dominant, vocals are needed for this lovely music, and it is the instrumentation that is more captivating.
Two Brazilian Bossa Nova standards are included: the bright and cheerful "Samba do Soho" and the dry "Agua de Beber." But there is much more. The best song is the precious "Listen to Your Heart," an exquisitely textured composition by Ron Last. A radiant xylophone-driven motif is complemented by other beautiful instrumentation and very pretty male/female harmonic vocals, to fabulous effect, lovely and a bit haunting. Closely behind is "With Love (When They Turn on the Light)" (co-authors: James and Ron Last), similar in character. Other superb tracks are the dreamy "Moonrain," with its lush, sensuous string arrangements (and woodwinds), and Duke Ellington's "Caravan," in which Astrud keeps up well with a jazzy, sexy, syncopated beat with unusual accents, punctuated by horn solos, all in all giving the song a sort of mideastern flavor. In a similar mideastern vein is "Saci," with a little faster, more-normal-style jazz beat, excellent sax soloing, and one of two songs Astrud (here male accompanied) sings in Portugese. All these songs compare favorably with the classic Bossa Nova standards for which she is renowned, this is a magnificent and essential addition for anyone who has fallen under the soothing spell of Astrud Gilberto.



Astrud Gilberto, James Last Orchestra - Plus   (flac  287mb)

01 Samba Do Soho 3:03
02 I'm Nothin' Without You 4:22
03 Champagne And Caviar 3:20
04 Listen To Your Heart 4:30
05 Moonrain 3:22
06 Caravan 3:45
07 Amor E Som 3:35
08 Saci 5:28
09 Forgive Me 4:23
10 With Love (When They Turn On The Light) 3:14
11 Agua De Beber 3:43

Astrud Gilberto, James Last Orchestra - Plus      (ogg  110mb)

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When Astrud Gilberto turned 60 in 2000, the Brazilian singer was still best known for her early-'60s bossa nova recordings with Stan Getz. And there is no reason why those recordings shouldn't be celebrated; they are classic examples of Brazilian jazz. But at the same time, those who think Gilberto should devote every moment of the day to Antonio Carlos Jobim standards sell her short. There is more to Gilberto than "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Corcovado," and on Jungle her own songs are a top priority. Gilberto, in fact, wrote or co-wrote ten of the 12 tunes on this CD, which was recorded in Philadelphia during the summer of 2001 (when she was 61) and released by Magya Productions (a small label based in the Philly suburb of Bala Cynwyd, PA) the following year. Jungle isn't strictly bossa nova, but it is a solid collection of Brazilian pop and Brazilian jazz -- and Gilberto demonstrates that she can still be a charming, expressive vocalist on originals that range from the sensuous ballad "Dancing" (a vocal duet with singer Mark Lambert) to the playful "Pink House" and the salsa-tinged "É Só Me Pedir" (which successfully combines Afro-Cuban and Brazilian elements). Meanwhile, "Rebola, Bola" is a funky, exuberant number that contains some Portuguese-language rapping by vocalist Magrus. Some American hip-hop enthusiasts might have a hard time picturing an artist rapping in Portuguese, but in fact, hip-hop has been big in Brazil since the '80s -- and that country is full of talented MCs who rap in Portuguese exclusively. Another high point of Jungle (which Gilberto has been selling on her official website) is her samba-minded interpretation of Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love." But original material dominates on this album, which is a welcome addition to the singer's catalog.



Astrud Gilberto - Jungle (flac  321mb)

01 Jungle (Xango) 4:09
02 E So Me Pedir 5:06
03 Ocean Dreams 4:33
04 In Spite Of The Odds 4:47
05 Xaxado Do Safado 3:43
06 Cómo Fue 3:43
07 Red Umbrella 3:54
08 Rebola, Bola 4:27
09 Dancing 4:30
10 Pink House 3:14
11 Inner Song 3:50
12 The Look Of Love 5:15

Astrud Gilberto - Jungle  (ogg 119mb)

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello, would love a re-up on these if possible. Thanks!