Description

By the greatest of hazards, I came across Mr W. Nayland's review of the CD titled "Astrud Gilberto's Finest Hour." In my opinion, this album is, arguably, the definite overview of the Verve recordings from Ms Astrud Gilbero, contrary to what Mr W. Nayland might say. And, no, Mr W. Nayland, this album is NOT titled "The Best Of Astrud Gilberto" either.
This CD is a twenty song strong collection of Ms Astrud Gilberto's classic blend of pop, samba and jazz recordings for the Verve label. It includes really the cream of her Verve recordings, spanning the period 1963-1969 (plus one track recordedmore… with James Last in 1986). The insert provides details of the recording dates and a list of the musicians for each track. The liner notes are quite knowledgeable too. More importantly, great attention has also been paid to the digital re-mastering and the sound is as good as it ever got.
I listened carefully to the classic "Girl From Ipanema" stereo track as it appears on the original German Verve LP copy of "Getz/Gilberto", on the US Verve 1997 re-mastered CD of the same album and on Ms Astrud Gilberto's album under review. All three versions of the track are definitely sourced from the same masters (differences of one or two seconds in lenght notwithstanding).
The catch here, however, is the word STEREO.
When the original "Getz/Giberto" LP was released in 1963, it proved an artistic and commercial success. In order to gain valuable exposure on AM radio, Verve released a single coupling EDITED MONO versions of "Girl From Ipanema" b/w "Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quite Stars.)" The mono 45 rpm version of "Girl From Ipanema" edits a lot from Mr Joao Gilberto's vocal contributions and puts, indeed, more emphasis on Ms Astrud Gilberto's vocals. On the stereo album track, Mr Joao Gilberto sings a lot more ; his voice is clearly in the middle of the "stereo stage", while Ms Astrud Gilberto's voice is panned to stage right. I guess that Mr W. Nayland didn't realize this when he spoke of some "balance problem".
I find it a shame when somebody compares apples and oranges and denigrates an entire album on basis of some ill-guided idea about how ONE of the TWENTY tracks should have sounded to the reviewer.
Personnally, I enjoy the longer, stereo version of "Girl From Ipanema" more, although I also have the single version. Those who like the single will get both sides of it as "bonus" tracks on the exquisitely remastered 1997 Verve reissue of the "Getz/Gilberto" CD, which remains one of Bossa Nova's truly finest moments.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

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Cover Info:

Title:

Astrud Gilberto - Astrud Gilberto's Finest Hour (2001) Retail CD

Part:

Front

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2858 x 2858 px

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1,184 KB

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Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

01/08/11 by ssvril

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