1970-01-01 02:00:00
“She was just a housewife.” That’s how the American saxophonist Stan Getz defined the singer Astrud Gilberto, who died on Monday, responsible for the English recording of “The Girl from Ipanema” that brought bossa nova to the world.
While the musician earned around US$ 1 million for the album “Getz/Gilberto”, from 1964, João Gilberto’s wife at the time earned US$ 120 for the work, an amount that the union of American musicians paid for a night’s work.
She was 22 when she recorded it, on March 18, 1963. The record sold more than five million copies worldwide, stayed on the Billboard charts for 96 weeks and won four Grammys. On the first pressing of the record, Astrud was not credited on the vinyl.
The data are from the book “Chega de Saudade: The History and Stories of Bossa Nova”, by Ruy Castro, columnist for Sheet. He also recalls that João Gilberto, in turn, earned US$ 23,000 for his work. Astrud was married to the father of bossa nova between 1959 and 1964.
On the occasion of the recording, with João Gilberto, Getz and Tom Jobim, lyricist Norman Gimbel discussed how the compositions would be translated into English and Astrud offered to sing the bossa nova classic. She would even voice the version of “Corcovado”, translated as “Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars”.
Even acknowledging the success, in an interview, Getz said that he put it on the album because João Gilberto could not sing the song in English. “The song was a hit, and that turned out to be a stroke of luck for her,” he said.
Astrud responded to the arrogant repercussions years later, remembering the producers as “wolves that pretend to be sheep”, but that he considers the version of the story that he would have been discovered by them to be a lie.
“I think they felt important that they were the ones who had the ‘wisdom’ to recognize the potential in my singing. I suppose I should be flattered by the importance they place on it… But I can’t help but be bothered by resorted to lying,” he said.
Gene Lees, editor of DownBeat magazine, recalled in an interview that, at the time of the album’s release, Getz sought out Creed Taylor, the producer, insistently to ensure that Astrud did not receive royalties for the work.
At the time of the album’s release, Astrud separated from João Gilberto, while the singer was touring North America as part of Getz’s band.
“In addition to being in the midst of a breakup and dealing with the responsibilities of being a single mother in the midst of a demanding new career, I was also dealing with being alone for the first time in my life, in a foreign country, traveling with a son, going through financial difficulties”, said Astrud, years later, when remembering the period.
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