Compact Jazz: Astrud Gilberto

Performer: Astrud Gilberto
Artist: Stan Getz; Joao Gilberto; Antonio Carlos Jobim; Gil Evans; Walter Wanderley
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: For listeners new to Gilberto's classic Verve work, this edition of the label's Compact Jazz sampler series makes for a perfect introduction. Along with Verve's equally fine Silver Collection of Gilberto's prime sides, this 16-track set includes cuts from most of the singer's different projects. From her classic Getz date ("The Girl From Ipanema") to her solo sessions with both Gil Evans ("Berimbau") and Ron Carter and Toots Thielemans ("Beach Samba"), the music is always top-notch. A disc that will please both your bossa nova- and jazz-loving friends at that next Carnaval party. ~ Stephen Cook Brazilian bossa nova princess Astrud Gilberto's entry in Verve's extensive Compact Jazz series of reissues is one of the best of her many compilations. COMPACT JAZZ focuses on her jazzier early work with Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto instead of her later, more pop-oriented solo records. The 16-track collection leans towards sambas, and bossa novas, though it also includes the occasional jazz standard such as "It Might As Well Be Spring," performed in Gilberto's "desafinado" (deliberately slightly off-pitch) vocal style. Her deadpan, childlike voice is one of the most unique and impressive in jazz, and COMPACT JAZZ displays it like a rare jewel. Selections range from her classic debut. "The Girl From Ipanema," through such Brazilian gems as "Berimbau," "Summer Samba," and "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)" and the gorgeous closer, "How Insensitive."

Brazilian vocalist Astrud Gilberto was a key figure in the bossa nova movement that moved beyond Brazil to sweep the world in the early-to-mid 1960s. As a featured vocalist on the landmark 1963 GETZ/GILBERTO release by American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and Astrud's then-husband, guitarist/singer Joao Gilberto, the young lady from Bahia took the music world by storm, especially on the huge hit "Girl From Ipanema," destined to become a standard. Influenced as much by American "cool jazz" as by the Brazilian composers like Antonio Carlos Jobim whose work she interpreted, Gilberto had a sultry, low-key style that stood out amid the overblown pop productions of the era, and her blend of pop, jazz, and Brazilian sounds helped sow the first seeds of what we now know as "world music."

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