I love Astrud. My favorite albums of hers are: "Look To The Rainbow" (mostly arranged by Gil Evans) and "september 17 1969", which includes terrific versions of songs by Chicago ("Beginnings" and The Doors ("Light My Fire"), among others.
Love listening to her music. And Joa as well. Nothing like it just has such a groove and so easy to put on in the background. Big Smile listening to her. and really cute to boot lol
The Astrud Gilberto album is probably her finest, but I'll echo "Look To The Rainbow" and add "Beach Samba" has some of her best and worst work, the duet of the lovin spoonful with her 6 year old son is tough to sit through, but the rest is fantastic. My favorite outside of her debut is probably "Now" it was her first album with original material, it's really good and is more brazilian (not as much pandering to an american audience). Highly recommend listening to it all, I still have a few more albums to finish my collection but feel I own her finest ones
I like her, have only really listened to her S/T album and was surprised as I usually dislike jazz and similar genres.
Im looking at a 2 CD comp..and also the Five Classic Albums series has a set of her stuff...selected albums from 65-69 I believe ..
I love Astrud, not so much as a bossa nova singer per se, but more as Verve's equivalent of Claudine Longet on A&M.
That "Now" album was excellent! For those interested, it was released on a DVD-A in the early 2000's. Astrud Gilberto - Now Another really good one is "Gilberto With Turrentine", her lone album for CTI. Gilberto with Turrentine - Wikipedia
Count me in! Finally found Beach Samba on CD. 9/17/69 is also excellent. I've actually never heard an album of hers I disliked. All good;
It's too bad the "Five Classic Albums" includes "Windy" instead of "The Shadow of Your Smile", "Beach Samba" or "September 17, 1969" -- "Windy" is probably my least favorite of her Verve albums.
Big fan of her as well. Beach Sambas great. Love her version of Call Me. She’s like the godmother of Stereolab.
I really enjoy most of her work, though some of her later albums did stray a little toward the cheezy side. Though maligned for being one of the "fake" live recordings which were a "thing" at the time, I really like the ORG 45 rpm of Getz Au GoGo, mostly for Astrud's pieces - Only Trust Your Heart and It Might as Well be Spring. If you like her stuff, you should check out Wanda Sa as well.
Here's another great later album -- when this album was released, I was fortunate to see her in small jazz club here in Pittsburgh for several shows. This was in the exciting early days of CDs, so I was thrilled to get this on a shiny CD! Astrud Gilberto Plus James Last Orchestra
Oh yes, I have an infatuation with Bossa Nova in general, but always seem to gravitate to Astrud's tracks. I particularly love the collaboration with The Walter Wanderley Trio, A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness (Verve/1966) - and so many of her covers of contemporary hits. I think her voice sounds great in tandem with Wanderley's bubbly and percussive Hammond organ tone, especially when the tune is sung in Portuguese. The whole album clocks in at less than a half hour, but does just about everything you want within the confines of the genre.
That is a terrific little album. Actually virtually all of Astrud's albums for Verve are under 30 minutes -- and they are perfect. The only exception is the more experimental "September 17, 1969", which warranted the extra playing time (it was surprisingly 42 minutes!).