Erin Digs It: Joao Gilberto - Outra Vez
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Artist:
There's a lot of music out there that I dig. A lot of music that deserves hearing. A lot that can change the way we think about things, or the way we create our own art. So I thought it'd be nice to share a song from my library every so often that has affected me in those ways. Songs that I dig. And maybe, hopefully, you'll dig it, too.
Song #1 of the Erin Digs It series: Joao Gilberto's "Outra Vez"
Miles Davis once said of the Brazilian folk pioneer, "He could read a newspaper and sound good." Not only do I believe that could well be true, but I would probably pay to hear Gilberto sit down and read the morning newspaper. I don't know that I have ever used the term "angelic" to describe a voice, because until I heard Joao Gilberto, the notion of doing so seemed silly--but if ever there were a man to stake claim to the attribute, this is the guy.
You probably know of Gilberto from his huge hit "Girl From Ipanema" that he sang with his wife Astrud (that's her in the picture with Joao on the beach). While that song and many others from Gilberto's catalogue were actually written by his friend and frequent collaborator Antonio Carlos Jobim, Gilberto's stylistic contributions to the music were what earned him his title as the "Godfather of Bossa Nova"--Bossa Nova being a derrivation of traditional samba played with a jazzier beat and in a generally more intimate fasion.
I have to give credit for my love of Gilberto and all things bossa nova to my former roommate, Wes, who would play Gilberto records in our miraculously acoustically inclined historic house, and the place would come alive. Add a bottle of wine or two, and it was enough to make us dance or weep or both, but after that first record came to a stop, bossa nova was in that house forever more. Wes had been turned on to the music by an old Brazilian girlfriend, and I suppose that's how it happens. It infiltrates, it changes things, it spreads.
Aside from "Girl From Ipanema" and a few other well-known tunes, Gilberto also gained international attention from his long-time collaboration with American jazz saxophonist, Stan Getz. Their 1963 album Getz/Gilberto may well be among some of the best records ever made. This track, "Outra Vez," is from Gilberto's album O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor released in 1960. Hope you dig it, too.
Locating MOG account...
Comments (5)
sounds like fun listening to bossa nova in the setting you describe. and yup, prior to reading this post, my knowledge of him stopped at "girl from ipanema."
If you can find it (it's now out of print), there's a CD called "The Legendary Joao Gilberto" that collects his Fifties stuff (including this cut and 36 others). If I had to pull one of my CDs out the proverbial burning house, it would be this one. It's indispensable. Can't tell you how many copies of this I've burned for friends and acquaintances, and no one has been less than abjectly grateful....
incurablyerin, for song #1 of your series you certainly started at the top in my opinion. There might be other musicians at his level, but none higher, and this song is as probably as good as any he ever did, subjectively speaking here. Recent studies have shown that Ivylander agrees with me on this.
Thanks very much, folks. I'm happy to see such a positive response to the music.
More to come, more to come...
You ain't alone on the diggin' here, Erin. The boss Brazilians mean the world to me. Jobim, fer instance? A god among men! And more than a few Gilbertos soothe my soul...