Song:Meditation
Album:Astrud Gilberto's Finest Hour
Of course Astrud Gilberto is best known as The Girl From Ipanema. She went on to have a significant solo recording career and is hailed today as The Queen Of Bossa Nova and the epitome of cool. I think people are confusing cool with nervous. Fortunately she worked with great musicians. She was born Astrud Weinert Mar. 30, 1940 in Bahia, Brazil and moved to Rio de Janeiro as a child. She married the famed Brazilian musician Joao Gilberto in 1959 and they moved to the US in 1963. So Stan Getz and producer Creed Taylor are recording the classic album Getz/Gilberto in New York and Taylor wanted a Brazilian female singer to record the English verse of The Girl From Ipanema. Astrud was the only Brazilian around who could speak English. She had never sung before. The rest is history. The Girl From Ipanema was an international hit and Astrud Gilberto became an international sensation. She soon went on tour with Getz and divorced Gilberto as well. Meditation is from her 1965 debut album The Astrud Gilberto Album. Verve wisely sent her into the studio with the legendary Antonio Carlos Jobim, arranger Marty Paich and jazz musicians like Bud Shank and Joao Donato. Meditation was written by Jobim and longtime partner Newton Mendonca. And like The Girl From Ipanema, the English lyrics were written by veteran songwriter Norman Gimbel. The album sold very well in the US. Astrud recorded several more albums for Verve with Gil Evans and Walter Wanderley. She faded in the US but remains an icon in Brazil. This comp is a great introduction to her music. Astrud Gilberto hasn't recorded much since the 70s and she has been semi-retired since 2002. But there's no question that Astrud's 60s recordings are the ultimate "chill out" recordings. As I said, I think she was just nervous. Here's Astrud Gilberto with Bud Shank on flute performing Meditation on the 1967 TV special Popendipity at the Warwick Musical Theatre in Warwick, RI.
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