Astrud Gilberto encyclopedia topics

Early life

Astrud Gilberto was born Astrud Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, and was raised in Rio de Janeiro. In 1959, she married João Gilberto, later emigrating to the U.S. in 1963.

Career

She sang on the influential album Getz/Gilberto featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. She had never performed professionally, and sang on the recordings at the suggestion of her husband, João Gilberto (they divorced in the mid-1960s).

Gilberto's recording of "The Girl from Ipanema" established her as a jazz and pop singer. In 1964, Gilberto appeared in the films Get Yourself a College Girl and The Hanged Man. Her first solo album was The Astrud Gilberto Album (1964). Gilberto began as a singer of bossa nova and American jazz standards, but recorded her own compositions in the 1970s. Her repertoire includes "The Shadow of Your Smile", "It Might As Well Be Spring", "Love Story", "Fly Me To The Moon", "Day By Day", "Here's That Rainy Day", and "Look To The Rainbow". She has recorded songs in Brazilian Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Japanese.

In 1982, Astrud Gilberto's son Marcelo joined her group, and toured with her for more than a decade as her group's bassist. In addition to working as a bassist, he collaborated as co-producer of the albums Live in New York (1996) and Temperance (1997). Son Gregory Lasorsa played on the Temperance album, playing the guitar on her song "Beautiful You", which features singer Michael Franks.

Astrud Gilberto received the "Latin Jazz USA Award for Lifetime Achievement" in 1992, and was inducted to the "International Latin Music Hall of Fame" in 2002. Although not officially retired, Gilberto announced in 2002 that she was taking "indefinite time off" from public performances. She is also a fine artist, and an ardent advocate of animal rights.

Influence

Gilberto's original recording of the song "Fly Me To The Moon" was edited as a "duet" using a recording of the same song by Frank Sinatra for the soundtrack of Down with Love (2003). Her song "Who Can I Turn To" was sampled by the Black Eyed Peas in the song "Like That" from the album Monkey Business. Her vocals on "Berimbau" were sampled by Cut Chemist in his song "The Garden".

Her recording of the song "Once I Loved" was featured in the 2007 film Juno.

The "Astrud" track on Basia Trzetrzelewska's 1987 album Time and Tide is a tribute to Gilberto.