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- A TAV Essential Listening Album -

Beyond being one of the best-selling jazz albums of all-time, Getz/Gilberto also represents the crowning achievement of bossa nova. The illustrious coming together of American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist/singer João Gilberto, alongside composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim, was a watershed moment that brought the cool jazz, elegant sambas and the exotic flavours of Rio De Janeiro into the mainstream.

Headlined by classics such as “The Girl From Ipanema” and “Corcovado” - both sung by João's wife Astrud Gilberto in her first professional recording session - Getz/Gilberto was a soft and sensuous album of unassailable beauty that embodied bossa nova's dreamy romanticism. This universally beloved record is the rare album that will appeal to purists and the casual public alike. — The Analog Vault

One of the biggest-selling jazz albums of all time, not to mention bossa nova's finest moment, Getz/Gilberto trumped Jazz Samba by bringing two of bossa nova's greatest innovators - guitarist/singer João Gilberto and composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim - to New York to record with Stan Getz. The results were magic. Ever since Jazz Samba, the jazz marketplace had been flooded with bossa nova albums, and the overexposure was beginning to make the music seem like a fad. Getz/Gilberto made bossa nova a permanent part of the jazz landscape not just with its unassailable beauty, but with one of the biggest smash hit singles in jazz history - "The Girl From Ipanema," a Jobim classic sung by João's wife, Astrud Gilberto, who had never performed outside of her own home prior to the recording session. 

Beyond that, most of the Jobim songs recorded here also became standards of the genre - "Corcovado" (which featured another vocal by Astrud), "So Danço Samba," "O Grande Amor," a new version of "Desafinado." With such uniformly brilliant material, it's no wonder the album was such a success but, even apart from that, the musicians all play with an effortless grace that's arguably the fullest expression of bossa nova's dreamy romanticism ever brought to American listeners. Getz himself has never been more lyrical, and Gilberto and Jobim pull off the harmonic and rhythmic sophistication of the songs with a warm, relaxed charm. This music has nearly universal appeal; it's one of those rare jazz records about which the purist elite and the buying public are in total agreement. Beyond essential. — via AllMusic

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Label: Analogue Productions, Verve Records
Series: Verve Reissues
Format: 2 x Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Album, Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered, Stereo, 200g, Gatefold
Reissued: 2011 / Original Release: 1964
Genre: Jazz, Latin
Style: Latin Jazz, Bossa Nova

File under: Audiophile Jazz
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