W♥M

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

R.I.P. João Gilberto

Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto: Getz-Gilberto, 1963 Read More Joao Gilberto Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto were responsible for "The Girl from Ipanema" with Gilberto's then-wife Astrud on vocals .…

Bossa Nova pioneer João Gilberto has died at the age of 88.

One of the most famous Bossa Nova song, “The Girl from Ipanema” was a collaboration between American jazz musician Stan Getz and Gilberto. Joao’s then-wife Astrud Gilberto lent her vocals on the recording, because Joao couldn’t sing the song in English (Joao sang the Portuguese version). That magic of rhythmic Brazilian sound and jazz influence, plus the whispery singing style of Astrud Gilberto - it was a winning formula.

For the full death list head over to Musicians who died in 2019.

July (15)

[08 Jul 2019] James Henke (American music journalist and museum curator for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), 65, dementia

[08 Jul 2019] Tunica Teixeira (Brazilian sound designer and musical producer), 69, cancer

[06 Jul 2019] Martin Charnin (American lyricist), 84, heart attack

[06 Jul 2019] João Gilberto (Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist, pioneer of bossa nova music style), 88

[06 Jul 2019] Thommy Gustafsson (Swedish keyboardist for Sven-Ingvars), 71

[06 Jul 2019] Yannis Spathas (Greek guitarist for Socrates Drank the Conium), 68

[05 Jul 2019] Paolo Vinaccia (Italian jazz percussionist), 65, pancreatic cancer

[04 Jul 2019] Vivian Perlis (American musicologist), 91

[02 Jul 2019] Michael Colgrass (American-born Canadian composer), 87, skin cancer

[02 Jul 2019] Costa Cordalis (Greek-born German schlager singer), 75

[02 Jul 2019] Ibrahim Emin (Azerbaijani rock musician for Yukhu), 56

[02 Jul 2019] Jacky Zimah (Indonesian singer), 63

[01 Jul 2019] Oskar Kröher (German folk singer), 91

[01 Jul 2019] Sid Ramin (American composer for West Side Story), 100

[01 Jul 2019] Bogusław Schaeffer (Polish composer, musicologist), 90

vu ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic