R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto

(Read more Musicians who died in 2023)

R.I.P. Astrud Gilberto

read more! Bebel Gilberto Brazilian Bebel Gilberto is touring the US, starting in Washington on November 23rd. Her latest album is called All in One and I just read is mostly in Portuguese…

Seemingly an ageless wonder, “The Girl from Ipanema” has passed on,

Astrud Gilberto, whose vocal performance on the first song she ever recorded, “The Girl From Ipanema,” helped bring the lasting wave of Brazilian bossa nova into the 1960’s mainstream, died on Monday at the age of 83.

Gilberto’s son Marcelo confirmed she had died and asked their family friend and musician Paul Ricci to post the news on Facebook.

Gilberto recorded that famous song while married to the father of Brazilian bossa nova, singer/guitarist João Gilberto in 1963. While rehearsing in NYC with jazz performer Stan Getz during the recording for the classic Getz/Gilberto album, she recorded the version of the song that would make her famous for the rest of her life, hitting #5 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, winning the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, and the album winning three Grammys, including Album of the Year.

Astrud Weinert was born on March 29, 1940, in Bahia, Brazil, to a German father, Fritz Weinert and Brazilian mother, Evangelina Weinert, both educators. Her parents would move the family to Rio and she became interested in music, meeting João Gilberto at age 19 and marrying him several months later.

Fellow musician Vinicius de Moraes actually wrote the original lyrics for “The Girl from Ipanema,” named after a beachside neighborhood in Rio where he and Antônio Carlos Jobim both watched a beautiful woman regularly walk by.

Gilberto would have increasing tensions within her marriage, resulting in an affair with Getz and an eventual divorce; but musically, she would sign as a solo performer with Verve Records with her first solo album from 1965, earning her a Grammy Award nomination. She would continue to record, ever popular in the US, but never as equally regarded with Brazilian critics.

Gilberto recorded eighteen studio albums, numerous compilations, and collaborations with the likes of Gil Evans, the James Last Orchestra, and a duet with George Michael on “Desafinado” for the AIDS-related benefit album, “Red Hot Rio”, effectively retiring after 2002’s final album, “Jungle”.

Astrud Gilberto is survived by her musician sons Marcelo Gilberto and Gregory Lasorsa, and two granddaughters.

 

Related, one of João Gilberto’s daughters from a following marriage, Bebel Gilberto, is a longtime bossa nova/jazz musician in her own right and plays the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis this August (though usually stops at the Dakota Jazz Club downtown).

John C ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com

Comments

[Tony]

I wish there were more pictures of her in her 70s and 80s because even in her elderly age she was beautiful , to me her beauty and talent was transcendent even with age and time … I saw one picture of her I think she was about 80 and she was beautiful and she seem like ( from what I read and saw ), she had a beautiful spirit .. I’m 60 and I’ve been amazed by her ever since I heard her sing girl from Ipanema I think I was 12 years old …Lol because of her I’ve been a romantic all my life ..

[Orb]

I do agree with you...about pictures in her oldness. But I guess it was her personal choice and has to be respected
Let her performances linger on and on...

[ag]

I don't know how that picture started circulating over the years, but that's not Astrud.

[Marcel]

There are almost no pics of her when she was 70/80

[Gordon Gruener]

In my opinion the photo is not that of Astrud Gilberto.

[Evert]

It's a picture of Monica Silfverskiöld, so I would remove it.