Astrud Gilberto: Look To The Rainbow (Verve By Request series) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Verve By Request series edition puts the album on 180g vinyl in stereo. Gil Evans arranged most of it, and the set mixes Jobim's "Felicidade" and "She's a Carioca" with "Once Upon a Summertime" and the title song.

This edition

• Verve By Request series
• 180g vinyl
• Stereo mix

About the album

Astrud Gilberto made her name singing almost by accident, stepping up to the microphone for "The Girl from Ipanema" and turning a session into a career. By 1966 she was a Verve star in her own right, and producer Creed Taylor paired her cool, breathy voice with one of the great orchestral minds in jazz.

Gil Evans arranged most of the album, with Al Cohn handling two songs on the second side. The programme leans on Brazilian writers, with Jobim's "Felicidade," "Frevo" and "She's a Carioca," João Gilberto's "Bim Bom" and Carlos Lyra's "Lugar Bonito," alongside Michel Legrand's "I Will Wait for You" and "Once Upon a Summertime." Johnny Coles takes a lovely trumpet solo on "I Will Wait for You," and Dom Um Romão adds percussion to the opener.

Evans's soft brass and woodwinds give her voice a glow all its own, and the title song, from Finian's Rainbow, sounds as if it were written for her. It is very much a Sunday morning record, which is handy, since that is when most of us finally get round to the coffee we promised ourselves on Friday.

Also at Kops: more Astrud Gilberto on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve (cat# V6-8643), a reissue of the 1966 album.