Getz/Gilberto

33⅓ Brazil #2

by Bryan Daniel McCann, Jason Stanyek (Series Editor)

Most die-hard Brazilian music fans would argue that Getz/Gilberto, the iconic 1964 album featuring "The Girl from Ipanema," is not the best bossa nova record. Yet we've all heard "The Girl from Ipanema" as background music in a thousand anodyne settings, from cocktail parties to telephone hold music. So how did Getz/Gilberto become the Brazilian album known around the world, crossing generational and demographic divides?

Bryan McCann traces the history and making of Getz/Gilberto as a musical collaboration between leading figure of bossa nova João Gilberto and Philadelphia-born and New York-raised cool jazz artist Stan Getz. McCann also reveals the contributions of the less-understood participants (Astrud Gilberto's unrehearsed, English-language vocals; Creed Taylor's immaculate production; Olga Albizu's arresting, abstract-expressionist cover art) to show how a perfect balance of talents led to not just a great album, but a global pop sensation. And he explains how Getz/Gilberto emerged from the context of Bossa Nova Rio de Janeiro, the brief period when the subtle harmonies and aching melodies of bossa nova seemed to distill the spirit of a modernizing, sensuous city.

33 1/3 Global, a series related to but independent from 33 1/3, takes the format of the original series of short, music-based books and brings the focus to music throughout the world. With initial volumes focusing on Japanese and Brazilian music, the series will also include volumes on the popular music of Australia/Oceania, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and more.

Genres: Music, Jazz

152 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2018

Reviews

[Alan (the Lone Librarian) Teder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bossa Nova Delight
Review of the Bloomsbury Academic 33 and 1/3 Global Brazil paperback edition (November 29, 2018).

[Album producer Creed] Taylor himself remembered it differently, indicating he knew he had a hit on his hands when he recorded Astrud Gilberto: "The surprise was when Astrud came in with her little voice to sing the lyric with that accent. I knew the song was going to be an absolute smash. You would have to be deaf and totally out of it not to hear that."

Somehow in my occasional reads of the 33 and 1/3 series of extended essays on significant popular music recordings I had missed noticing that they have an entirely separate "Global" series which covers world music. Currently there are sub-series for Europe, Oceania, Japan, Brazil, South Asia and Africa. You can search through them at Bloomsbury Academic's website here. I chanced upon this when I discovered there was an upcoming Global Europe 33 & 1/3 release about the Estonian punk rock record Külmale maale by the band J.M.K.E. which will be published as Brigitta Davidjants' J.M.K.E.'s To the Cold Land (expected publication January 2025).

This Global series allows you to discover music which you might otherwise never have heard of. For my first read though, I chose a book under Global Brazil about the 1964 jazz/bossa nova album Getz/Gilberto which features the popular song The Girl from Ipanema.


Olga Albizu's original painting "Alla Africa" (1963) used as the cover image for Getz/Gilberto. Image sourced from Wikiart.

Author Bryan McCann provides a superb overview of not only the record album itself, the musicians and the songs but also about the various precedents and leadups to the recording and then about its follow-ups and afterlife. The book was also enhanced by the 1950's photographs by Brazilian photographer José Medeiros, which illustrated life in Rio and on the beaches of Ipanema.


Photograph by José Medeiros. Image sourced from The Eye of Photography.

This was an excellent introduction to the 33 and 1/3 Global series and I hope to investigate more of these books, although they are somewhat harder to find than the ones in the regular popular music series. i.e. only a few of them at my local library for instance.

Soundtrack
Listen to the full album with 2 bonus tracks of the 45rpm edited versions (of the songs The Girl from Ipanema & Corcovado (Quiet Nights and Quiet Stars)) of Getz/Gilberto at a YouTube playlist which begins here.

Listen to the original album with 8 tracks on YouTube here or the enhanced version with 2 bonus tracks on Spotify here.

Trivia and Links
See a performance of The Girl From Ipanema performed by Astrud Gilberto and the Stan Getz Quartet in the film Get Yourself a College Girl (1964) on YouTube here.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always nice to read something about which one is a purported expert and learn something new.

[Justin Remer · Rating 5 out of 5]

An thoughtful and informative look at the making of this great bossa nova-jazz album.

[Maciej Bliziński · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ordered this book by mistake – I wanted to buy the transcription of the album, and was surprised when this arrived instead. What a serendipity! I've long been a fan of the unique Getz/Gilberto record, but knew little about the backstory. This short and sweet book unveiled part of the mystery. The author is a professor of Brazilian history, but the book is not an academic book, it reads more like fireside storytelling.

[vint cerf · Rating 3 out of 5]

i tore off a page and pasted it onto my final art project for Prof. McCann’s Rio de Janeiro class

[Maximillian Grahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly unique book, the author includes anecdotes and perspectives about Getz/Gilberto that are hard to come by. What first may seem niche becomes an engrossing read about music, race, and politics in Brazil and the world. I was impressed by how intrigued I became with Bryan McCann’s style as an author, and it made the book impossible to put down. It also clears up some misconceptions about Bossa and Brazilian music as a whole.

I view this book as indispensable to understanding and appreciating this album. Since I have read it, João Gilberto has become one of my favorite artists of all time, and I wish discovering his music upon everyone I know. There’s a history in this book that deserves to be uncovered, and I love that it exists in this form.

The Girl from Ipanema deserves more respect than it’s frankly disgusting reputation as “elevator music”, and this book deals it out.

[Sid Groeneman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of a series called 33 1/3 global, featuring short, music-based books focusing on music throughout the world, published by Bloomsbury Academic. Author Bryan McCann is a professor of Brazilian History at Georgetown University. This book describes the making of the iconic album titled Getz/Gilberto, featuring American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and famed Brazilian singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto. This album (1964) and its legendary single “The Girl From Ipanema” contributed mightily to the popularity of bossa nova in the U.S. and worldwide.

In addition to how it came to be made, McCann details the individual cuts on the album, and the composers, musicians, producers, and technical support personnel involved in its making; also, the cultural context in which this occurred (mid 20th-century Rio de Janeiro)—all in 24 very short chapters, 124 pages in all.

Having just returned from my first trip to Rio and due to my life-long fondness for Brazilian music, I enjoyed learning new details about the album, its participants, and the broader context. It should be equally well received by other jazz fans with at least a passing interest in samba and bossa nova. I also liked being introduced to recommended but unfamiliar (to me) songs and albums, which I quickly downloaded for listening from Apple Music.

I would have given the book more stars had it not gone into so much technical detail and music jargon, most of which I didn’t understand. Also, less space might have been taken up with highlighting lyrical passages in the native Portuguese, although translated into English.

[Charles Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

History of one of the biggest selling "jazz" records of all time: collaboration of US saxophonist Stan Getz and Bossa Nova originator Joao Gilberto. Musicians composers, social milieu, recording sessions, artwork. Placed clearly within the diverse racial worlds of mid-century Brazil and the US. Great work by McCann, professor of Brazilian history and music. From the Brazilian version of the "33 1/3" series of books written about a single album. Includes amazing period photographs that capture the bucolic scenes of Fifties and Sixties Rio de Janeiro. Easy to read in one morning. Transportive. Now, to Spotify to stream all that music.

[Miguel Arsénio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Smooth, pretty much like the record it focuses.

[Chris Breitenbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love that there's a 33 1/3 Brazil series. I really enjoyed this one.