João Gilberto

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João Gilberto (born João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira on June 10, 1931 in the town of Juazeiro, Bahia) is a Brazilian musician and considered one of the co-creators, with Tom Jobim, of bossa nova.

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Biography

A self-taught guitarist and singer, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1950 and had a stint of moderate success singing with the chorus group Garotos da Lua (The Boys of the Moon). However, after being kicked out of the band for his lack of discipline, he spent the next several years of his life in a marginal existence, imposing on friends, using marijuana, but above all, obsessed with creating a new way to express himself on the guitar. His efforts eventually came to fruition, and upon meeting Antonio Carlos Jobim — a classically-trained pianist and composer who was influenced by the contemporary North American popular and jazz music of the time — and a group of middle-class university students and musicians, they launched the bossa nova movement.

Bossa nova was a distillation of the percussive syncopated samba rhythm into a simplified form which could be performed on a single unaccompanied guitar, and João Gilberto is credited with single-handedly inventing this technique. He sang in a very low volume with the syllables of the lyrics put alternatively in advance or delayed from the instrumental base, and trained intensively to eliminate almost all noise from respiration and other imperfections.

This new style created a sensation in Gilberto's performances at private jam sessions and informal collegiate concerts. He played the guitar in Elizete Cardoso's album Canção do Amor Demais in 1958, featuring compositions by Jobim and his lyrical partner Vinicius de Moraes. Shortly after this recording, Gilberto made his own debut LP, Chega de Saudade. The title track (listen to excerpt ), a Jobim composition which was also featured on the Cardoso album, was a domestic hit single, and launched Gilberto's career and consequently the entire bossa nova movement. Besides a number of Jobim compositions, the album featured older sambas and popular songs from the 1930s, but all performed in the distinctive bossa nova style. This album was followed by two more in 1960 and 1961, by which time he featured new songs by a younger generation of performer/composers such as Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal.

By 1962, bossa nova had been embraced by North American jazz musicians such as Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, and Stan Getz, who invited Gilberto and Jobim to collaborate on what became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto. Through this album, Gilberto's wife Astrud became an international star, and the Jobim composition "The Girl from Ipanema" became a worldwide pop music standard for the ages.

Gilberto continued to perform through the 1960s, but did not release another studio album until 1968's Ela É Carioca EP, recorded during a period of residence in Mexico. João Gilberto, sometimes referred to as the "White Album" of bossa nova, appeared in 1973, and featured a cool, almost mystical sensibility, his first discernible departure from the original sound of a decade earlier. 1976 saw the release of The Best of Two Worlds, a reunion with Stan Getz, featuring singer Miucha (sister of Chico Buarque), who had become Gilberto's second wife in April 1965. 1977's Amoroso backed Gilberto with the lush string orchestration of Claus Ogerman, who had provided a similar sound to Jobim's instrumental recordings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As had been the case for all of Gilberto's albums, the album was mostly Jobim compositions, mixed with older sambas, and an occasional North American standard from the 1940s. On 1980's Brasil, Gilberto collaborated with Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and Maria Bethânia, who in the late 1960s had founded the Tropicalia movement, which had fused bossa nova with rock. The 1991 release João was unusual in its lack of even a single Jobim composition, instead featuring tunes by Caetano, Cole Porter, and Spanish-language composers. João Voz E Violão, released in 2000, signaled a return to the classics, with Gilberto revisiting Chega de Saudade and Desafinado; the album was an homage to the music of his youth and a nod forward to producer Caetano Veloso.

Evenly interspersed with these studio recordings have been the live recordings Live in Montreux, Prado Pereira de Oliveira, Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar, Live at Umbria Jazz, and In Tokyo.

While all of Gilberto's albums since Getz/Gilberto have been released on CD, the first three domestic albums were released in 1988 by EMI on a single CD entitled The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-1961). The disc also included the singles O Nosso Amor and A Felicidade, merged into a single medley track to fit within the recording time of a CD. After its release, Gilberto successfully sued to have the title removed from sale as an unauthorized release of his artistic works.

Gilberto has long had a reputation as an eccentric recluse, a nearly neurotic perfectionist. He reportedly has spent the last decades in a Rio de Janeiro luxury hotel, refusing all interviews and almost never going out. He has been known to walk out on performances in response to an audience he considers disrespectful, and at times demands that air-conditioning and emergency lighting be turned off at concert venues. Yet he continues to perform regularly in Brazil as well as a few select overseas venues to sell-out crowds.

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Discography

João Gilberto's first recordings were released in Brazil as two-song 78-rpm EPs, between 1951 and 1959. In the 1960s, brazilian EPs evolved to the "double compact" format, and João would release some EPs in this new format, which brought 4 songs in a 45-rpm record.

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Garotos da Lua EPs

  • Garotos da Lua (July 1951, Todamerica 5075, 78-rpm EP)
    Quando Você Recordar (Valter Souza, Milton Silva) / Amar é Bom (Zé Keti, Jorge Abdala)
  • Garotos da Lua (November 1951, Todamerica 3120, 78-rpm EP)
    Anjo Cruel (Wilson Batista, Alberto Rego) / Sem Ela (Raul Marques, A. Ribeiro)
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Solo EPs

  • João Gilberto (August 1952, Copacabana 096, 78-rpm EP)
    Quando Ela Sai (Albeto Jesus, Roberto Penteado) / Meia Luz (Hianto de Almeida, João Luiz)
  • João Gilberto (February 1959, Odeon 14.426, 78-rpm EP)
    Ho-ba-la-la (João Gilberto) / Desafinado (Tom Jobim, Newton Mendonça)
  • João Gilberto (June 1959, Odeon 14.460, 78-rpm EP)
    Lobo Bobo (Carlos Lyra, Ronaldo Boscoli) / Maria Ninguém (Carlos Lyra)
  • João Gilberto (July 1959, Odeon 14.495, 78-rpm EP)
    Manhã de Carnaval (Luís Bonfá, Antônio Maria) / Frevo (Tom Jobim)
  • Samba de Uma Nota Só (1959, Odeon BWB 1153, 45-rpm EP)
    Samba de Uma Nota Só / Doralice / O Pato / Trevo de Quatro Folhas (also released in 1960 as 2 78-rpm EPs)
  • João Gilberto (April 1961, Odeon 14.725, 78-rpm EP)
    Bolinha de Papel (Geraldo Pereira) / Saudade da Bahia (Doryval Caymmi)
  • João Gilberto (1962, Odeon, 45-rpm EP)
    O Nosso Amor / A Felicidade / Manhã de Carnaval / Frevo
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Albums

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References

  • McGowan, Chris and Pessanha, Ricardo. "The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil." 1998. 2nd edition. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-545-3
  • Template:Cite web
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See also

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External links

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