Astrud

Like Nico, Astrud Gilberto's everywoman voiced has always had a polarizing effect on critics and fans alike. While her take on bossa nova is less than reverent and decidedly lightweight, the warmth and approachability she brings to each performance is stunning. Verve's lovingly compiled - and blissfully affordable - Astrud Gilberto's Finest Hour is as solid a collection of her heady mixture of samba, jazz and pop as you're likely to find. Twenty songs, including the classic "Girl From Ipanema," wash in like waves from the warmest of oceans, carrying with them the soft, reverb-drenched soundtrack to summer. If the tropical heat of "Berimbau," the lazy and lonely pulse of Burt Bacharach's "Trains and Boats and Planes" and the upbeat swing of "Wish Me a Rainbow" don't instantly take the drudgery of your day away, then consider yourself hopelessly bitter.

Astrud Gilberto has never been properly anthologized by Verve Records; although they've released a number of compilations over the years, none of them have been definitive, and most of them have been rather skimpy. 1987's The Silver Collection, originally released only in Europe but later imported to North America, is an idiosyncratic selection. It omits "The Girl From Ipanema," her biggest hit, includes all 11 tracks from her 1965 release The Astrud Gilberto Album, and adds on a selection of singles and album tracks recorded from 1965 to 1970 with no particular logic. All that said, however, it's still one of the best compilations available of this idiosyncratic but brilliant singer's '60s material. Jazz purists turn up their noses at Gilberto, correctly pointing out her near total lack of technical ability. However, the Brazilian songbird's appealingly plain voice, with its deliberately wobbly pitch (the "desafinado" style celebrated in Antonio Carlos Jobim's song of that title), total lack of vibrato, and deadpan phrasing, is a delight for those attuned to its charms.

Compilation album released in the U.S.A. on Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto (Bahia, 1940). She features twelve songs from her diverse discography that stands in the melodic and romantic look of the compositions. The subject of love has always been a favorite in the production of Astrud, both accompanied by orchestra and small ensembles in which artists appear as Stan Getz, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilbert, Walter Wanderley or Kenny Burrell among others, interpreting Brazilian rhythms, especially bossa, ballad or slow.

Thirteenth studio album by Brazilian singer Astrud Gilberto (Bahia, 1940). Her voice sample, as in other works, warm, soft and intimate, but also is suggestive and seductive. The accompaniment by James Last Orchestra pays her deservedly eclectic instrumentation that enhances her versatility and vocal intensity, sometimes passionately featured in a musical pairing very carefully. Guest artists are Paul Jobim (composer and guitar) and Ron Last (composer and synthesizer). Brazilian rhythms in the voice of Astrud supported by sensual strings and brass, unmistakable Last's gift.

Although the name Stan Getz (tenor sax) was initially synonymous with the West Coast cool scene during the mid-to-late 1950s, he likewise became a key component in the Bossa Nova craze of the early 1960s. Along with Astrud Gilberto (vocals), Getz scored a genre-defining hit with the "Girl From Ipanema," extracted from the equally lauded Getz/Gilberto (1963). While that platter primarily consists of duets between Getz and João Gilberto (guitar/vocals), it was truly serendipity that teamed Getz with João's wife Astrud, who claims to have never sung a note outside of her own home prior to the session that launched her career. Getz Au Go Go Featuring Astrud Gilberto (1964) was the second-to-last album that he would issue during his self-proclaimed "Bossa Nova Era" - the final being Getz/Gilberto #2 [Live] (1964) concert title from Carnegie Hall…