Stan Getz/João Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto (Verve Essentials series) [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

Getz/Gilberto in Verve's Essentials series. It won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1965, the first non-American album to do so, and 'The Girl from Ipanema' took Record of the Year.

This edition

• Verve Essentials series
• Original 8-track running order across two sides
• Cover art by Olga Albizu

About the album

In 1963 Stan Getz, already in love with the new sound coming out of Brazil, sat down in a New York studio with João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, the man who wrote most of these songs. Creed Taylor produced, the sessions took two days, and Gilberto's wife Astrud, who had never sung professionally, was asked to sing the English verses of 'The Girl from Ipanema' and 'Corcovado'.

That last-minute idea launched her career and turned the album into one of the best-selling jazz records ever made, with over a million copies sold. It's a record of hushed voices, nylon-string guitar and Getz's soft, breathy tenor, from 'Desafinado' to 'Só Danço Samba', and sixty years later it still sounds like the coolest room in the house. Put it on at a dinner party and watch the guests suddenly start talking about moving to Rio.

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve (cat# 6100475), a reissue of the 1964 album.