Day 357: Stan Getz & João Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto

I’ve said here before that I just haven’t managed to get into bossa nova, but to be fair to bossa nova, I also have never sat down to listen to a good bossa nova album. Every time I hear it somewhere, I just think it’s pleasant but uninteresting. Today, I’m putting this to the test and listening to what the more learned people call one of the all-time bossa nova albums, Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and João Gilberto.

Album cover courtesy of Verve Records

Stan Getz was an American saxophonist who was known as “The Sound”. He’s known as one of the most influential jazz musicians of his era, and one of the best tenor saxophonists of all time. João Gilberto was a Brazilian guitarist, singer, songwriter composer and bossa nova pioneer who also had a very cool nickname: “O Mito,” meaning The Myth.

The pair recorded Getz/Gilberto in 1963 in only three days, and it’s credited as being the album that popularised  bossa nova. It featured them with pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto’s 22-year-old wife, who provided the English-speaking vocals, including in the legendary song “The Girl From Ipanema” – arguably, she’s probably the reason it became such a smash, but Getz worked hard to ensure that she never received any royalties for it, and she only got a measly $120 for her performance.

Getz/Gilberto was an immediate hit, and it became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time. It also It also won three Grammy's for Best Album of the Year, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group and Best Engineered Recording - Non-Classical. It’s a classic album that’s also many lists of best album, including Rolling Stone’s list of 500 greatest albums of all time.

And yet when I listen to it, I just don’t get it. I’m sorry to all the sophisticates of the world, but I just have very little reaction to hearing it. It’s nice to have on as background music, but I also think there’s better background music out there that doesn’t make me feel like I’m in a hotel lobby waiting for an elevator. It’s perfectly passable to have on, but I’m just not getting anything remotely close to one of the best albums of all time – it’s not bad and obviously it’s musically good, but nothing about it really reels me in. Maybe it’s my plebeian spirit, but I have no reaction to hearing this other than “nice.”

I’ve tested my theory that bossa nova is just not for me, and I have come to the conclusion that bossa nova is just not for me. It was a learning album. I’m giving it a perfectly decent 7/10, but it’s not my thing.