Aug 30, 2016

RhoDeo 1635 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 When talking about bossa nova, perhaps the signature pop music sound of Brazil, frequently the first name to come to one's lips is that of Antonio Carlos Jobim. With songs like "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Desafindo," Jobim pretty much set the standard for the creation of the bossa nova in the mid-'50s. However, as is often the case, others come along and take the genre in a new direction, reinventing through radical reinterpretation, be it lyrically, rhythmically, or in live performance, making the music theirs. And if Jobim gets credit for laying the foundation of bossa nova, then the genre was brilliantly reimagined (and, arguably, defined) by the singer/songwriter and guitarist João Gilberto. In his native country he is called O Mito (The Legend), a deserving nickname, for since he began recording in late '50s Gilberto, with his signature soft, near-whispering croon, set a standard few have equaled........N'Joy

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João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, known as João Gilberto was born June 10th 1931 in Juazeiro in the northeastern state of Brazil known as Bahia, Gilberto seemed obsessed with music almost from the moment he emerged from the womb. His grandfather bought him his first guitar at age 14 (much to the dismay of João's father). Within a year, the result of near constant practicing, he was the leader of a band made up of school friends. During this time Gilberto was absorbing the rhythmic subtlety of the Brazilian pop songs of the day, while also taking in the rich sounds of swing jazz (Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey), as well as the light opera singing of Jeanette MacDonald. At 18, Gilberto gave up on his small town life and headed to Bahia's largest city, Salvador, to get a foothold in the music industry performing on live radio shows. Although he was given the opportunity to sing, instant stardom was not in the offing, but his brief appearances on the radio brought him to the attention of Antonio Maria, who wanted Gilberto to become the lead singer for the popular radio band Garotos da Lua (Boys From the Moon) and move to Rio de Janeiro.

Gilberto stayed in the band only a year. He was fired after the rest of the group could take no more of his lackadaisical attitude. Gilberto was frequently late for rehearsals and performances, and in a move reminiscent of American pop star Sly Stone, would occasionally not show up at all. After his dismissal from the group Gilberto lived a seminomadic life. For years he had no fixed address, drifting from friend to friend and acquaintance to acquaintance, living off their kindness and rarely if ever contributing to the household expenses. Evidently Gilberto was such charming company that his emotional carelessness and fiscal apathy were never an issue -- that or he had extremely patient and generous friends. It was during this underachieving bohemian period that Gilberto kept an extremely low profile. Instead of using his time with Garotos da Luna as a springboard for other recording and performing possibilities, he became apathetic, constantly smoking large quantities of marijuana, playing the odd club gig, and refusing work he considered beneath him (this included gigs at clubs where people talked during the performance). Although gifted with considerable talent as a singer and guitar player, it seemed as though Gilberto would fail to attain the success and notoriety he deserved if only due to apathy that verged on lethargy.

Chega de Saudade After nearly a decade of aimlessness Gilberto joined forces with singer Luis Telles, who encouraged Gilberto to leave Rio for a semibucolic life in the city of Pôrto Alegre. Telles, who functioned as a combination public relations guru and sugar daddy, made sure the demanding Gilberto wanted for nothing and would concentrate on his music. It turned out to be a successful, if expensive strategy. Within a few months Gilberto (who at this point had given up his prodigious marijuana consumption and was now partaking in nothing stronger than fruit juice) was the toast of Pôrto Alegre, the musician everyone wanted to see. It was also during this extended apprenticeship that Gilberto perfected his unique vocal style and guitar playing. So breathy and nasally it is almost defies description, in many ways he uses all the things one is taught not to do as a singer and has made them into an instantly recognizable style. Not even established crooners such as Bing Crosby and Perry Como sang more quietly or with less vibrato. This, along with his rhythmically idiosyncratic approach to playing the guitar -- an intensely syncopated plucking of the strings that flowed with his singing -- made for some exhilarating music, and by the time of his first record, Chega de Saudade (1959), Gilberto became widely known as the man who made bossa nova what it is.

True to form, however, Gilberto took the road less traveled, and after the success of his debut record and the two follow-up releases, he left Brazil to settle in the United States, where he lived until 1980. During this period he recorded some amazing records, working with saxophonist Stan Getz and recording music by older Brazilian songwriters such as Dorival Caymmi and Ary Barroso. He returned to Brazil in the early '80s and since then has worked with virtually every big name in Brazilian pop, including Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania, Gal Costa, and Chico Buarque. He never saw record sales like the aforementioned performers, but all of them regard him as a profound influence on their work. True to his image as enigmatic and eccentric, Gilberto lives a semireclusive lifestyle secure in the knowledge that, decades ago, he changed the course of Brazilian culture by making the bossa nova his music, as well as the music of Brazil.

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João Gilberto's debut LP, 1959's Chega de Saudade, was one of the most important bossa nova recordings, and credited by many as the album that, more than any other, launched bossa nova as a major popular music genre. The dozen songs add up to a surprisingly short playing time of about 23 minutes, but introduce several of bossa nova's most beloved trademarks: breezy, soothing melodies and vocals; tight arrangements with seamless blends of clipped guitar strokes and light orchestration, and, of course, the bossa nova rhythm. The most popular of these songs ("Chega de Saudade" and "Desafinado") had already been released as singles in 1958, but though they might be the most memorable tracks, the album maintains a consistently high standard (if a fairly similar mood throughout). [The 2010 U.K. CD reissue on El adds a lot of bonus material, starting with three 1959 Gilberto recordings used in the film Orfeo do Carnaval, among them another classic, "Manha de Carnaval." Also included are no less than eleven 1957-1959 Brazilian recordings by artists other than Gilberto that are tightly or loosely aligned with the early bossa nova movement Bola Sete and Walter Wanderley being the most well known of those. Gilberto was involved in most, but not all, of these as a songwriter or guitarist, and the rationale for their inclusion is not spelled out in the CD's annotation (which, for that matter, has only basic details about these non-Gilberto tracks). It's churlish to complain about abundant extra material on a reissue CD that does include everything from the album it's based upon, but the 12-page booklet had room for such information. Packaging criticism aside, those 11 tracks by performers other than Gilberto are enjoyable and show different slants on the early bossa nova sound, sometimes instrumental, sometimes with shades of exotica (on Wanderley's organ-dominated cuts), sometimes with women singers, and sometimes poppier in approach than Gilberto's own work. Three consecutive versions of Gilberto's "Ho-Ba-La-La" (one of the songs from Chega de Saudade) seem like a programming lapse, but Norma Bengell's vocal version of that song is a highlight, as is Alaide Costa's jazzy rendering of Gilberto's "Minha Saudade."'



João Gilberto - Chega De Saudade  (flac  322mb)

01 Chega De Saudade 2:03
02 Lobo Bobo 1:21
03 Brigas, Nunca Mais 2:07
04 Hô-bá-lá-lá 2:17
05 Saudade Fêz Um Samba 1:47
06 Maria Ninguém 2:23
07 Desafinado 1:58
08 Rosa Morena 2:06
09 Morena Boca De Ouro 2:01
10 Bim Bom 1:17
11 Aos Pés Da Cruz 1:35
12 E Luxo Só 1:59
bonus
13 A Felicidade 2:56
14 Manhã De Carnaval 2:38
15 O Nosso Amor 2:27
16 Elizete Cardoso - Chega De Saudade 3:30
17 Os Cariocas - Chega De Saudade 2:40
18 Alaide Costa - Lobo Bobo 2:34
19 Walter Wanderley - Lobo Bobo 2:00
20 Walter Wanderley - Hô-bá-lá-lá 2:51
21 Norma Bengell - Hô-bá-lá-lá 2:54
22 Bene Nunes - Hô-bá-lá-lá 2:47
23 Bola Sete - Maria Ninguém 2:20
24 Bola Sete - Minha Saudade 2:42
25 Alaide Costa - Minha Saudade 2:20
26 João Donato - Minha Saudade 3:09

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It is difficult to overstate or overhype the importance of this CD, for it exhaustively documents the starting point of bossa nova in Brazil prior to the global craze. The building blocks are solidly in place -- João Gilberto's highly distinctive, pioneering acoustic guitar rhythms, his precisely enunciated vocals (not recorded too closely for a change), the stripped-down, samba-based percussion, Antonio Carlos Jobim's extraordinary songs, and most tellingly on many tracks, Jobim's spare, often-copied backdrops and countermelodies for strings, winds, and horns that are so much a part of his compositions. We can eavesdrop on the exact beginning of the bossa nova movement with the 1958 single containing Jobim's "Chega de Saudade" and Gilberto's "Bim Bom"; one can easily see why this quietly revolutionary record hit the Brazilian music scene like a silent cruise missile. Moreover, the second single was "Desafinado," a fully formed masterpiece long before it became an international hit, with Gilberto producing a precision-cut gem of vocal pinpointing. Along with the singles, there are three albums of material squeezed onto one CD, 38 tracks in all, of which only a dozen surfaced in the U.S. on LP at the time. In addition to Jobim's songs, there are plenty of first-rate contributions by Gilberto, Dorival Caymmi, Ary Barroso, Carlos Lyra, and other writers. And perhaps most importantly, besides being historically indispensable and an extraordinary deal for the consumer, this music is an absolute pleasure to hear.



The Legendary Joao Gilberto (1958-1961)   (flac  456mb)

01 Chega de Saudade 2:00
02 Desafinado 2:00
03 One Note Samba 2:35
04 O Pato 1:59
05 Bolinha de Papel 1:16
06 O Amor Em Paz 2:25
07 Trêvo de 4 Folhas 1:22
08 O Barquinho 2:30
09 Lobo Bobo 1:20
10 Bim Bom 1:12
11 Hô-Bá-Lá-Lá 2:14
12 Aos Pés da Cryz 11:31
13 É Luxo Só 1:55
14 Outra Vez 1:49
15 Coisa Mais Linda 2:51
16 Este Seu Olhar 2:15
17 Trenzinho (Trem de Ferro) 1:47
18 Brigas, Nunca Mais 2:05
19 Saudade Fez Um Samba 1:50
20 Amor Certinho 1:50
21 Insensatez 2:25
22 Rosa Morena 2:02
23 Morena Boca de Ouro 1:55
24 Maria Ninguem 2:20
25 A Primeira Vez 1:52
26 Presente de Natal 1:52
27 Samba de Minha Terra 2:19
28 Saudade da Bahia 2:15
29 Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) 1:57
30 Só em Teus Braços 1:45
31 Meditation (Meditação) 1:43
32 Você e Eu 2:30
33 Doralice 1:25
34 Discussão 1:48
35 Se e Tarde Me Perdoa 1:44
36 Un Abraço No Bonfá 1:35
37 Manha de Carnaval 2:31
38 Medley: O Nosso Amor/A Felicidade 3:07

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One of the biggest-selling jazz albums of all time, not to mention bossa nova's finest moment, Getz/Gilberto trumped Jazz Samba by bringing two of bossa nova's greatest innovators -- guitarist/singer João Gilberto and composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim -- to New York to record with Stan Getz. The results were magic. Ever since Jazz Samba, the jazz marketplace had been flooded with bossa nova albums, and the overexposure was beginning to make the music seem like a fad. Getz/Gilberto made bossa nova a permanent part of the jazz landscape not just with its unassailable beauty, but with one of the biggest smash hit singles in jazz history -- "The Girl From Ipanema," a Jobim classic sung by João's wife, Astrud Gilberto, who had never performed outside of her own home prior to the recording session. Beyond that, most of the Jobim songs recorded here also became standards of the genre -- "Corcovado" (which featured another vocal by Astrud), "So Danço Samba," "O Grande Amor," a new version of "Desafinado." With such uniformly brilliant material, it's no wonder the album was such a success but, even apart from that, the musicians all play with an effortless grace that's arguably the fullest expression of bossa nova's dreamy romanticism ever brought to American listeners. Getz himself has never been more lyrical, and Gilberto and Jobim pull off the harmonic and rhythmic sophistication of the songs with a warm, relaxed charm. This music has nearly universal appeal; it's one of those rare jazz records about which the purist elite and the buying public are in total agreement. Beyond essential.



Getz-Gilberto feat Jobim (flac 184mb)

01 The Girl From Ipanema 5:20
02 Doralice 2:47
03 P'ra Machuchar Meu Coraçao 5:08
04 Desafinado 4:07
05 Corcovado 4:17
06 So Danco Samba 3:35
07 O Grande Amor 5:28
08 Vivo Sonhando 2:56

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Justifiably overshadowed by the peerless Getz/Gilberto album (which featured "Girl from Ipanema") from a year before, Getz/Gilberto #2 still holds its own with an appealing selection of fine jazz and bossa nova cuts. Unlike the first album's seamless collaboration by Getz, João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, here Getz and João Gilberto turn in separate sets recorded live at Carnegie Hall in October of 1964. Backed by a stellar quartet comprised of vibraphonist Gary Burton, bassist Gene Cherico, and drummer Joe Hunt, Getz turns in a sparkling performances on the seldom covered ballad "Tonight I'll Shall Sleep with a Smile on My Face," while stretching out nicely on his original blues swinger "Stan's Blues." With the support of bassist Keeter Betts and drummer Helcio Milito, Gilberto displays his subtle vocal and guitar talents on a set of bossa nova favorites, including his own "Bim Bom" and Jobim's "Meditation." An appealing title amongst Getz's many bossa nova outings, but not an essential one. Newcomers should definitely start with the Getz/Gilberto album before checking this one out.



Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto - #2 Meditation (Carnegie Hall) (flac 322mb)

01 Grandfather's Waltz 4:59
02 Tonight I Shall Sleep With A Smile On My Face 2:47
03 Stan's Blues 4:46
04 Here's That Rainy Day 4:02
05 Samba Da Minha Terra 3:09
06 Rosa Morena 4:06
07 Um Abraço No Bonfa 2:52
08 Bim Bom 2:10
09 Meditation 3:56
10 O Pato 2:20
Bonus Tracks
11 It Might As Well Be Spring 5:53
12 Only Trust Your Heart 5:50
13 Corvacado (Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars) 5:41
14 Garota De Ipanema (The Girl From Ipanema) 7:39
15 Voce E Eu 3:28

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

please reup the Getz-Gilberto feat Jobim CD

Thank you!

Noises From Apt 2A said...

a big "Thank You" for re-upping these albums ....