You never regret going to a gig, do you. And even though that distant night in the early 1990s when Astrud Gilberto took to the stage of the Jazz Cafe in London's Camden Town and was in front of a typically lit up inside raucous crowd of the era, half the audience smoking, the other necking overpriced beers in the very epitome of a yuppie kitted out jazz bar as it had become or gazing if bereft of a beverage up at the posh seats in the restaurant, and who contrary to the venue's famous STFU (shut the fuck up) instruction stencilled on to the walls wouldn't, no matter how softly she sang and she did so preternaturally and how loudly the audience yelped with delight that voice felled the most recalcitrant of bellowing boors. Gilberto has died aged 83 and of course all the reports and instant obituaries today mentioned one thing mainly and why the crowd was there that Camden night long ago - 'Girl From Ipanema'. In 1963, Astrud went with her husband João Gilberto to New York to help him when he was making an album with Stan Getz. It became the Grammy winning Getz/Gilberto supercharging a boom in a jazz and bossa nova blend that still counts for something today in the raw ingredients of many live acoustic jazz sets in any big capital city that has a few decent jazz clubs you care to think of.
The pair needed a singer for the Norman Gimbel English lyrics version of the Jobim/Vinícius de Moraes song 'Garota de Ipanema' and Astrud volunteered. The song was an instant hit and sensation and went on to win the Grammy for record of the year. Astrud's later career highlights included duets with Chet Baker and acting roles. She also sang with George Michael a remarkable duet version of another Getz/Gilberto Jobim classic 'Desafinado' on AIDS fundraiser Red Hot + Rio in the 1990s.
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