Astrud Gilberto
Encyclopedia
Astrud Gilberto is a Brazil
ian samba
and bossa nova
singer
. She is well known for the Grammy Award
-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema
".
, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro
. She married João Gilberto
in 1959 and emigrated to the United States
in 1963, continuing to reside in the US since then. They divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, Stan Getz
.
She sang on the influential album Getz/Gilberto
featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim
. She had never performed professionally, and sang on the recordings at the suggestion of her (then) husband, João Gilberto.
Gilberto's recording of "The Girl from Ipanema
" established her as a jazz
and pop
singer. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc
. In 1964, Gilberto appeared in the films Get Yourself a College Girl
and The Hanged Man
. Her first solo album was The Astrud Gilberto Album (1964). Upon moving to the United States, she went on tour with Getz. Beginning as a singer of bossa nova
and American jazz standards, Gilberto started to record her own compositions in the 1970s. Her repertoire includes "The Shadow of Your Smile
", "It Might as Well Be Spring
", "Love Story", "Fly Me to the Moon
", "Day by Day
", "Here's That Rainy Day
", and "Look to the Rainbow". She has recorded songs in Portuguese
, English
, Spanish
, Italian
, French
, German
, and Japanese
.
In 1982, Gilberto's son Marcelo joined her group, touring with her for more than a decade as bassist. In addition, he collaborated as co-producer of the albums Live in New York (1996) and Temperance (1997). Her son Gregory Lasorsa played guitar on the Temperance album on the song "Beautiful You", which features singer Michael Franks.
Gilberto received the Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame
in 2002. In 1996, she contributed to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio
produced by the Red Hot Organization
, performing the song "Desafinado" (Portuguese for "slightly out of tune", or "off key") along with George Michael
. Although she did not officially retire, Gilberto announced in 2002 that she was taking "indefinite time off" from public performances.
Her original recording of the song, "Fly Me to the Moon
", was edited as a duet using a recording of the same song by Frank Sinatra
for the soundtrack of Down with Love
(2003). Her recording, "Who Can I Turn To?
", was sampled by The Black Eyed Peas
in the song "Like That
" from the album Monkey Business
. Her vocals on "Berimbau" were sampled by Cut Chemist
in his song "The Garden". Her recording of "Once I Loved" was featured in the 2007 film Juno
.
The "Astrud" track on Basia Trzetrzelewska's 1987 album, Time and Tide, is a tribute to Gilberto.
Gilberto is an ardent advocate of animal rights
.
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian samba
Samba
Samba is a Brazilian dance and musical genre originating in Bahia and with its roots in Brazil and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. It is recognized around the world as a symbol of Brazil and the Brazilian Carnival...
and bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
singer
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
. She is well known for the Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning song "The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
".
Biography
Astrud Gilberto was born as Astrud Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of BahiaBahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. She married João Gilberto
João Gilberto
João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, known as João Gilberto , is a Brazilian singer and guitarist. His seminal recordings, including many songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, established the new musical genre of Bossa nova in the late 1950s.-Biography:From an early age, music...
in 1959 and emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1963, continuing to reside in the US since then. They divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, Stan Getz
Stan Getz
Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...
.
She sang on the influential album Getz/Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto
Getz/Gilberto is a jazz bossa nova album released in 1964 by the American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto, and featuring composer and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim. Its release created a bossa nova craze in the United States and internationally...
featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Jobim
Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim , also known as Tom Jobim , was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within...
. She had never performed professionally, and sang on the recordings at the suggestion of her (then) husband, João Gilberto.
Gilberto's recording of "The Girl from Ipanema
The Girl from Ipanema
"Garota de Ipanema" is a well-known bossa nova song, a worldwide hit in the mid-1960s that won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965. It was written in 1962, with music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Portuguese lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. English lyrics were written later by Norman Gimbel.The...
" established her as a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singer. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. In 1964, Gilberto appeared in the films Get Yourself a College Girl
Get Yourself a College Girl
Get Yourself a College Girl is a 1964 Metrocolor film comedy in the style of a beach party movie. The plot involves a college co-ed who tries to balance her time writing songs and dealing with her publisher who tries to pursue her. It was directed by Sidney Miller and written by Robert E...
and The Hanged Man
The Hanged Man (1964 film)
The Hanged Man is a TV film directed by Don Siegel, in which a gunman seeks to avenge the death of his friend, whom he believes was murdered. It is considered the second television film in broadcast history. It debuted on NBC on November 18, 1964....
. Her first solo album was The Astrud Gilberto Album (1964). Upon moving to the United States, she went on tour with Getz. Beginning as a singer of bossa nova
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a style of Brazilian music. Bossa nova acquired a large following in the 1960s, initially consisting of young musicians and college students...
and American jazz standards, Gilberto started to record her own compositions in the 1970s. Her repertoire includes "The Shadow of Your Smile
The Shadow of Your Smile
"The Shadow of Your Smile", also known as "Love Theme from The Sandpiper", is a popular song. The music was written by Johnny Mandel with the lyrics written by Paul Francis Webster...
", "It Might as Well Be Spring
It Might as Well Be Spring
"It Might as Well Be Spring" is a song from the 1945 film, State Fair. With music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song that year. State Fair was the only original film score by Rodgers and Hammerstein. In the film the song was...
", "Love Story", "Fly Me to the Moon
Fly Me to the Moon
"Fly Me to the Moon" is a popular standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It was originally titled "In Other Words", and was introduced by Felicia Sanders in cabarets...
", "Day by Day
Day by Day (song)
"Day by Day" is a popular song with music by Axel Stordahl and Paul Weston and lyrics by Sammy Cahn.-Recorded versions:*Ernestine Anderson*Ray Anthony*Shirley Bassey*Les Brown & His Orchestra *Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Sextet...
", "Here's That Rainy Day
Here's That Rainy Day
"Here's That Rainy Day" is a popular song with music by Jimmy Van Heusen and lyrics by Johnny Burke, published in 1953. It was introduced by Dolores Gray in the Broadway musical Carnival in Flanders...
", and "Look to the Rainbow". She has recorded songs in Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
.
In 1982, Gilberto's son Marcelo joined her group, touring with her for more than a decade as bassist. In addition, he collaborated as co-producer of the albums Live in New York (1996) and Temperance (1997). Her son Gregory Lasorsa played guitar on the Temperance album on the song "Beautiful You", which features singer Michael Franks.
Gilberto received the Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1992, and was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame
International Latin Music Hall of Fame
The International Latin Music Hall of Fame was established in 1999.In addition to the induction into the Hall of Fame, the award ceremonies include Special Recognition Awards and Beny Moré Memorial Award.-1999:...
in 2002. In 1996, she contributed to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Rio
Red Hot + Rio
Red Hot + Rio is a compilation album produced by Paul Heck as part of the Red Hot AIDS Benefit Series intended to promote AIDS awareness. This installment is a contemporary tribute to the Bossa nova sound, especially the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim...
produced by the Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization
Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...
, performing the song "Desafinado" (Portuguese for "slightly out of tune", or "off key") along with George Michael
George Michael
George Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
. Although she did not officially retire, Gilberto announced in 2002 that she was taking "indefinite time off" from public performances.
Her original recording of the song, "Fly Me to the Moon
Fly Me to the Moon
"Fly Me to the Moon" is a popular standard song written by Bart Howard in 1954. It was originally titled "In Other Words", and was introduced by Felicia Sanders in cabarets...
", was edited as a duet using a recording of the same song by Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
for the soundtrack of Down with Love
Down with Love
Down with Love is a 2003 romantic comedy film directed by Peyton Reed and written by Eve Ahlert and Dennis Drake. It stars Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, and is a pastiche of the romantic comedies of the early 1960s starring Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall such as Pillow Talk and Lover...
(2003). Her recording, "Who Can I Turn To?
Who Can I Turn To?
"Who Can I Turn To?" is a popular song. It may be titled "Who Can I Turn To ".It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley and published in 1964. The song was introduced in the musical The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, which struggled in the United Kingdom in 1964 and...
", was sampled by The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas
The Black Eyed Peas are an American pop group , formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1995. The group includes rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap, and Taboo, and singer Fergie. Since the release of their third album Elephunk in 2003, the group has sold an estimated 56 million records worldwide...
in the song "Like That
Like That (Memphis Bleek song)
"Like That" is the lead single from Memphis Bleek's fourth album, 534. The song peaked at #47 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks chart and at #22 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. The single was produced by Swizz Beatz. The song is featured on the game Madden NFL 06. Rihanna and labelmate Freeway...
" from the album Monkey Business
Monkey Business (album)
-Track listing:Notes*"My Humps" contains a hidden track "So Real".*"Audio Delite at Low Fidelity" includes a hidden track "Change".Sample Notes*"Pump It" samples "Misirlou" by Dick Dale....
. Her vocals on "Berimbau" were sampled by Cut Chemist
Cut Chemist
Lucas MacFadden , better known as Cut Chemist, is an American DJ and record producer. He is a former member of the funk Latin band Ozomatli, and of hip hop group Jurassic 5...
in his song "The Garden". Her recording of "Once I Loved" was featured in the 2007 film Juno
Juno (film)
Juno is a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Ellen Page stars as the title character, an independent-minded teenager confronting an unplanned pregnancy and the subsequent events that put pressures of adult life onto her. Michael Cera, Olivia Thirlby, J. K....
.
The "Astrud" track on Basia Trzetrzelewska's 1987 album, Time and Tide, is a tribute to Gilberto.
Gilberto is an ardent advocate of animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
.
External links
- Official Website
- "Desperately Seeking Astrud Gilberto" by Joey Sweeney, Philadelphia WeeklyPhiladelphia WeeklyPhiladelphia Weekly , is an award-winning alternative newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published every Wednesday.The paper was founded in 1971 as a sister publication to the South Philadelphia Press. In 1995, the paper became Philadelphia Weekly...
, June 5, 2002.