João Gilberto

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João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira on June 10, 1931 in the town of Juazeiro, Bahia) is a Brazilian musician and considered one of the co-creators, with Tom Jobim (Antonio Carlos Jobim), of bossa nova.

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[edit] Biography

A self-taught guitarist and singer, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1950 and joined the vocal group Garotos da Lua (The Boys of the Moon) as their lead singer. After a year and a half, he was kicked out of the group for his lack of discipline and spent the next several years in a marginal existence. Eventually he found his way, creating a new way to express himself in voice and on the guitar. The result of his obsessive experiments became known as bossa nova.

Bossa nova is a more refined version of samba, deemphasizing the percussive aspect of its rhythm and enriching the melodic and harmonic content. Rather than relying on the traditional Afro-Brazilian percussive instruments, bossa nova usually utilizes a drum set. João Gilberto often eschews all accompaniment except his guitar, which he uses as a percussive as well as a harmonic instrument. The singing style he developed is almost whispering, economical, and without vibrato. He creates his tempo tensions by singing ahead or behind the guitar.

This style, which Gilberto introduced in 1957, created a sensation in the musical circles of Rio's Zona Sul, and many young guitarists sought to imitate it. It was first heard on record in 1958, when João Gilberto accompanied singer Elizeth Cardoso in a recording of "Chega de Saudade", a song by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. Shortly after this recording, João Gilberto made his own debut single of the same song, followed by the 1959 LP, Chega de Saudade. The song (listen to excerpt) turned into a hit, launching Gilberto's career and the bossa nova craze. Besides a number of Jobim compositions, the album featured older sambas and popular songs from the 1940s and '50s, but all performed in the distinctive bossa nova style. This album was followed by two more in 1960 and 1961, by which time the singer featured new songs by a younger generation of performer/composers such as Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal.

By 1962, bossa nova had been embraced by North American jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, and Stan Getz, who invited Gilberto and Jobim to collaborate on what became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto. Through this album, Gilberto's wife Astrud became an international star, and the Jobim/de Moraes composition "The Girl from Ipanema" became a worldwide pop music standard for the ages.

João Gilberto continued to perform through the 1960s, but did not release another studio album until João Gilberto en México, recorded in 1970 during a period of residence in Mexico. João Gilberto, aka the "White Album" (1973), featured hypnotic minimalist execution and is widely considered to be his best album. 1976 saw the release of The Best of Two Worlds, a reunion with Stan Getz, featuring singer Miúcha, sister of Chico Buarque, who had become Gilberto's second wife in April 1965. Amoroso (1977) backed Gilberto with the lush string orchestration of Claus Ogerman, who had provided a similar sound to Jobim's instrumental recordings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As had been the case for all of Gilberto's albums, the album consisted mostly of Jobim compositions, mixed with older sambas and an occasional North American standard from the 1940s.

Having lived in the US since 1962, João Gilberto returned to Brazil in 1980. The following year saw the release of Brasil, with guests Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who in the late 1960s had founded the Tropicalia movement, a fusion of Brazilian popular music with foreign pop. The 1991 release João, with orchestrations by Clare Fischer, was unusual in its lack of even a single Jobim composition, instead featuring songs in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, plus old sambas and the solitary contemporary song "Sampa" (Caetano Veloso). João Voz e Violão (2000) was an homage to the music of Gilberto's youth as well as a nod to producer Caetano Veloso.

Evenly interspersed with these studio recordings have been the live recordings Live in Montreux; João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira; Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar; Live at Umbria Jazz; and Live in Tokyo.

While all of Gilberto's albums since Getz/Gilberto have been released on CD, the first three domestic albums were released in 1988 by EMI on a single CD entitled The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-1961). The disc also included three tracks from the singer's 1959 Orfeu Negro EP: "Manhã de Carnaval," O Nosso Amor, and A Felicidade, the latter two merged into a single medley track to fit within the recording time of a CD. After its release, Gilberto successfully sued to have the title removed from sale as an unauthorized release of his artistic works.

João Gilberto has long had a reputation as an eccentric recluse, a nearly neurotic perfectionist. He lives in an apartment in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, refusing all interviews and avoiding crowds. He has been known to walk out on performances in response to an audience he considers disrespectful or out of theaters possessing acoustics below his standards, and at times demands that the air conditioning be turned off at concert venues. Yet he continues to perform to sell-out crowds in Brazil as well as in Europe, North America, and Japan.

[edit] Discography

João Gilberto's first recordings were released in Brazil as two-song 78-rpm EPs, between 1951 and 1959. In the 1960s, Brazilian EPs evolved to the "double compact" format, and João would release some EPs in this new format, which brought 4 songs in a 45-rpm record.

[edit] Garotos da Lua EPs

  • Garotos da Lua (July 1951, Todamerica 5075, 78-rpm EP)
    Quando Você Recordar (Valter Souza, Milton Silva) / Amar é Bom (Zé Keti, Jorge Abdala)
  • Garotos da Lua (November 1951, Todamerica 3120, 78-rpm EP)
    Anjo Cruel (Wilson Batista, Alberto Rego) / Sem Ela (Raul Marques, A. Ribeiro)

[edit] Solo EPs

  • João Gilberto (August 1952, Copacabana 096, 78-rpm EP)
    Quando Ela Sai (Albeto Jesus, Roberto Penteado) / Meia Luz (Hianto de Almeida, João Luiz)
  • João Gilberto (February 1959, Odeon 14.426, 78-rpm EP)
    Ho-ba-la-la (João Gilberto) / Desafinado (Tom Jobim, Newton Mendonça)
  • João Gilberto (June 1959, Odeon 14.460, 78-rpm EP)
    Lobo Bobo (Carlos Lyra, Ronaldo Boscoli) / Maria Ninguém (Carlos Lyra)
  • João Gilberto (July 1959, Odeon 14.495, 78-rpm EP)
    Manhã de Carnaval (Luís Bonfá, Antônio Maria) / Frevo (Tom Jobim)
  • Samba de Uma Nota Só (1959, Odeon BWB 1153, 45-rpm EP)
    Samba de Uma Nota Só / Doralice / O Pato / Trevo de Quatro Folhas (also released in 1960 as 2 78-rpm EPs)
  • João Gilberto (April 1961, Odeon 14.725, 78-rpm EP)
    Bolinha de Papel (Geraldo Pereira) / Saudade da Bahia (Doryval Caymmi)
  • João Gilberto (1962, Odeon, 45-rpm EP)
    O Nosso Amor / A Felicidade / Manhã de Carnaval / Frevo

[edit] Albums

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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