João Gilberto (1931–2019) was the Brazilian singer and guitarist who invented bossa nova's whisper — Chega de Saudade (1959) is the genre's founding document. Getz/Gilberto (1964), with Stan Getz, won the Album of the Year Grammy and gave the world The Girl from Ipanema. Browse João Gilberto vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira was born in Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil on June 10, 1931. He moved to Rio de Janeiro in the early 1950s and developed his distinctive guitar style during a period of relative seclusion in the mid-1950s - combining samba rhythms with jazz harmonies in a quieter, more intimate approach that would become bossa nova. His 1959 album Chega de Saudade (with songs largely composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim and lyricist Vinicius de Moraes) is widely considered the founding document of bossa nova as a recognized genre. His 1964 collaboration with American tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, Getz/Gilberto, won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1965 - making it the first non-American album to win the top Grammy - and featured his then-wife Astrud Gilberto on the international hit The Girl from Ipanema. He died of natural causes on July 6, 2019 at age 88. His daughter Bebel Gilberto is also a noted bossa nova singer.
João Gilberto's sound is foundational to bossa nova - combining samba, jazz, Brazilian popular music (MPB), and chamber music with his distinctive intimate vocal delivery and his signature batida guitar technique (a syncopated chord-and-bass approach that defined bossa nova rhythm guitar).
Original Odeon and Verve pressings of the João Gilberto catalog are foundational items in bossa nova and jazz collecting. Multiple anniversary editions, audiophile reissues (Acoustic Sounds Verve series), and the comprehensive Verve and Universal reissue programs have been released.
Listeners new to João Gilberto typically start with Getz/Gilberto (1964) or Chega de Saudade (1959).
