11 ms·

Astrud Gilberto has died

226 points by brudgers 3y ago

kristiandupont 3y ago
The orange album has been my preferred morning music for almost 20 years by now. I can't thank her (them) enough for that piece of art.
ge96 3y ago
I found this song in the movie Deep Rising ha elevator scene, lucky find.
junon 3y ago
Astrud didn't originally want to be the Girl from Ipanema girl but I'm glad she was. Her vocals are enchanting. For anyone who wants to know more than they ever wanted about The Girl from Ipanema, the literal most famous song on Earth, see this video by Adam Neely: https://youtu.be/OFWCbGzxofU https://youtu.be/OFWCbGzxofU
ojosilva 3y ago
Astrud fits so well the role of the Girl from Ipanema, even though she's not actually the girl who inspired Tom and Vinicius. She was always this soft-spoken, youthful spirit who so gently reminded us of a time when we were also young and lovely. The original Girl from Ipanema was a 16 year-old (Helô Pinheiro, not Astrid) who walked into a neighborhood bar, "Bar do Veloso" a bar in Ipanema that still exists today under a new name [1], to buy cigarrettes for her parents. The poet-witness, Vinicius de Moraes, noted with the lyrics the melancolic, winterish sadness of middle age by contemplating the chasm that now separated him from an full-of-life adolescent. In 1962, Vinicius was turning 50 soon and had been expressing his bohemian self in a darker note. He rewrote the lyrics of Girl from Ipanema a few times to "cheer it up" a notch, but the B section today preserves the core meaning of the original lyrics: Why am I so lonely / Why am I so sad. The 1st version of the lyrics can be found around the webs too: I was tired of everything / of so many paths / striped out of poetry. Astrud on the other hand was a very naive young woman at that point in 1963. She was then married to nut-job, pot-head genius João Gilberto, who took her on tour to the US where she ended up in the famed Gilberto/Getz recordings. Astrud and Gilberto separated later that year (apparently he cheated on her). Stan Getz, Norman Gimbel (English lyrics) and Creed Taylor (producer) allegedly worked really hard to strip her, and every other Brazilian composer, away from any proceedings from the recordings, as they did with the of the English lyric recordings of Tom Jobim songs. With her steady-breath, no-vibrato vocal style (a Gilberto and Chet Baker staple) fragile and sweet-as-hell voice and slightly out-of-tune highs she became a definite icon of what modern meant 1960s. [1] https://goo.gl/maps/Pewt5ENShRSPgA5J8 https://goo.gl/maps/Pewt5ENShRSPgA5J8
cjohnson318 3y ago
I mean, she did a lot. I like Corcovado the best.
- rdtsc 3y ago
  That is my favorite too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srw5FRm5eA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srw5FRm5eA
pmarreck 3y ago
She got paid $120 for her voice work in Girl from Ipanema. I think that may be the only money she ever saw from that. That is incredible, and the other guys who took credit for this song basically made a fortune off her.
- amanaplanacanal 3y ago
  Her voice totally made that song. RIP.
  - embit 3y ago
    Equal credit goes to one and only Stan Getz
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- youreincorrect 3y ago
  The "other guys" as in Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto (her husband)? You write this as if they were nothing to the song.
  - pmarreck 3y ago
    I didn’t mean it to come across that way, I just wasn’t sure of the spelling of their names and I didn’t have time to look it up when I commented
- rmsaksida 3y ago
  Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema) was composed by Tom Jobim, one of the greatest Brazilian composers, and written by Vinícius de Moraes, one of the greatest Brazilian poets. João Gilberto, another one of our greatest musicians, also contributed to the song. It was recorded by different singers before the English version with Astrud was ever recorded, and the most famous version in Brazil by far is sung by Tom Jobim himself. Astrud is actually not that well known in Brazil - she's much more famous abroad. I'm not sure who the "guys who took credit" are supposed to be but I never thought of Garota de Ipanema as being Astrud's song or anything like that. Not to say whatever happened to her wasn't unfair, of course, but her interpretation of the song is one among many. The song is Vinícius and Tom's.
ryanisnan 3y ago
Why am I reading about this on Hacker News? edit: Editing to say, I don't mean this in a condescending way, or that this person's passing is irrelevant. I more precisely mean to say that I don't understand how this content is topical to this forum.
- rvz 3y ago
  > edit: Editing to say, I don't mean this in a condescending way, or that this person's passing is irrelevant. I more precisely mean to say that I don't understand how this content is topical to this forum. You're totally right but people can mourn here about those who have passed on if they want to and they are free to do so. Whether if a black bar will appear for this individual or if this post is allowed on the front page is another question. However at this point, the guidelines on this orange site are not fit for purpose anyway. Not even the moderators here follow it and add 'exceptions' to the rule from time to time.
- indigoabstract 3y ago
  I think it's because she is important for some of the folks here and they'd like to know about it. From the number of points & comments, I don't think it's really off-topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Besides, I also found out about Queen Elizabeth's passing last year by reading it on HN.
- speed_spread 3y ago
  She made good coding music.
  - 3wolf 3y ago
    Bossa nova is some of my favorite music to listen to while working. It's mellow, soothing, but never boring. Also, being in a foreign language helps minimize distraction. RIP
  - ElevenFingers 3y ago
    “astrid gilberto radio ⌨ - bossanova to code/program to”
denvaar 3y ago
One of my favorite recording of her was on a Dutch TV show. Pretty cool footage https://youtu.be/13YKO0Vwz8E https://youtu.be/13YKO0Vwz8E
- Avshalom 3y ago
  I love old footage from when people didn't know what they were platforming. The Monks invented punk and they're just introduced as "oh hey here's a local band"
rmason 3y ago
I've got a friend who wrote about meeting Astrud Gilberto through contacts in the music business. As a teen he had a crush on her, I think everyone of a certain age certainly did. Here's how he described her, "She was a 45-year-old woman, in an 18-year-old body, with a 14-year-old mind." I've learned that in meeting an idol that you how you imagine someone might be is seldom how they really are in real life.
AlbertCory 3y ago
Fortunately, we still have Flora: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Purim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Purim (Not bossa nova, though.) Personally, except for (maybe) French, Portuguese is the non-English language I most like to hear someone singing in.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  If you like Flora Purim check out 'What game shall we play today' with Return to Forever.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    Yep, I have that.
lemax 3y ago
While Astrud captured a beautiful english rendition of this song, the lure and enchantment of bossa and samba is lost quite easily to my ears when english vocals chime in. If you love this stuff and you want to branch out from well known Getz and Jobim, hear Paulinho Da Viola, Gabor Szabo, Novos Bainanos, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia - you’ll find some of these in any classics loving brasileira’s vinyl crate. https://youtu.be/ZQNIa6VhHoY https://youtu.be/ZQNIa6VhHoY https://youtu.be/0OxmMYXJ8V4 https://youtu.be/0OxmMYXJ8V4 https://youtu.be/0FVPQzKw9bk https://youtu.be/0FVPQzKw9bk https://youtu.be/omZs1q0wnIs https://youtu.be/omZs1q0wnIs
- rpgbr 3y ago
  Agreed. I just think some of your recommendations, such as Novos Baianos, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia, aren't exactly bossa nova singers. I’d recommend João Gilberto (who was married with Astrud) and Miúcha. Elis Regina has an astonished album recorded with Tom Jobim in 1974, “Elis & Tom”.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- culebron21 3y ago
  I urge others discover the samba (or pagode) genre. With a bit of Portuguese at A2 you'll love it. This is a popular tradition of in company (in backyard -- hence the band name "Fundo do quintão"), and to me this is one of the last genres of music that you can sing together, a capella. They have melody and the text is just right for a human.
  - fdgjgbdfhgb 3y ago
    > "Fundo do quintão" Close - it's Fundo de Quintal [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgIdKSv6pl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgIdKSv6pl8
    - muxator 3y ago
      And this is by Demônios da Garoa no less! A band that has been existing for more than 80 years now.
culebron21 3y ago
Rest in peace, Astrud, your simple songs were a gateway into samba and Portuguese to me. I remember hearing them on radio in the late 90s-early 00s, in some un-typical style, unheard to me, and I guess I'd not have been able to google any of these songs out. But then a program on jazz featured bossa nova and mentioned her name among others. I then learned Portuguese and left bossa nova and Gilberto for more elaborate styles and singers, but these still pull a nostalgic string.
- xkcd1963 3y ago
  What do you mean by "more elaborate"?
  - culebron21 3y ago
    to name a few, Paulinho da Viola, Jorge Aragão, Fundo de Quintal

226 points by brudgers 3y ago

The orange album has been my preferred morning music for almost 20 years by now. I can't thank her (them) enough for that piece of art.

ge96 3y ago

I found this song in the movie Deep Rising ha elevator scene, lucky find.

junon 3y ago

Astrud didn't originally want to be the Girl from Ipanema girl but I'm glad she was. Her vocals are enchanting. For anyone who wants to know more than they ever wanted about The Girl from Ipanema, the literal most famous song on Earth, see this video by Adam Neely: https://youtu.be/OFWCbGzxofU https://youtu.be/OFWCbGzxofU

ojosilva 3y ago

Astrud fits so well the role of the Girl from Ipanema, even though she's not actually the girl who inspired Tom and Vinicius. She was always this soft-spoken, youthful spirit who so gently reminded us of a time when we were also young and lovely. The original Girl from Ipanema was a 16 year-old (Helô Pinheiro, not Astrid) who walked into a neighborhood bar, "Bar do Veloso" a bar in Ipanema that still exists today under a new name [1], to buy cigarrettes for her parents. The poet-witness, Vinicius de Moraes, noted with the lyrics the melancolic, winterish sadness of middle age by contemplating the chasm that now separated him from an full-of-life adolescent. In 1962, Vinicius was turning 50 soon and had been expressing his bohemian self in a darker note. He rewrote the lyrics of Girl from Ipanema a few times to "cheer it up" a notch, but the B section today preserves the core meaning of the original lyrics: Why am I so lonely / Why am I so sad. The 1st version of the lyrics can be found around the webs too: I was tired of everything / of so many paths / striped out of poetry. Astrud on the other hand was a very naive young woman at that point in 1963. She was then married to nut-job, pot-head genius João Gilberto, who took her on tour to the US where she ended up in the famed Gilberto/Getz recordings. Astrud and Gilberto separated later that year (apparently he cheated on her). Stan Getz, Norman Gimbel (English lyrics) and Creed Taylor (producer) allegedly worked really hard to strip her, and every other Brazilian composer, away from any proceedings from the recordings, as they did with the of the English lyric recordings of Tom Jobim songs. With her steady-breath, no-vibrato vocal style (a Gilberto and Chet Baker staple) fragile and sweet-as-hell voice and slightly out-of-tune highs she became a definite icon of what modern meant 1960s. [1] https://goo.gl/maps/Pewt5ENShRSPgA5J8 https://goo.gl/maps/Pewt5ENShRSPgA5J8

cjohnson318 3y ago

I mean, she did a lot. I like Corcovado the best.

rdtsc 3y ago
That is my favorite too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srw5FRm5eA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srw5FRm5eA

pmarreck 3y ago

She got paid $120 for her voice work in Girl from Ipanema. I think that may be the only money she ever saw from that. That is incredible, and the other guys who took credit for this song basically made a fortune off her.

amanaplanacanal 3y ago
Her voice totally made that song. RIP.
- embit 3y ago
  Equal credit goes to one and only Stan Getz
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
youreincorrect 3y ago
The "other guys" as in Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto (her husband)? You write this as if they were nothing to the song.
- pmarreck 3y ago
  I didn’t mean it to come across that way, I just wasn’t sure of the spelling of their names and I didn’t have time to look it up when I commented
rmsaksida 3y ago
Girl from Ipanema (Garota de Ipanema) was composed by Tom Jobim, one of the greatest Brazilian composers, and written by Vinícius de Moraes, one of the greatest Brazilian poets. João Gilberto, another one of our greatest musicians, also contributed to the song. It was recorded by different singers before the English version with Astrud was ever recorded, and the most famous version in Brazil by far is sung by Tom Jobim himself. Astrud is actually not that well known in Brazil - she's much more famous abroad. I'm not sure who the "guys who took credit" are supposed to be but I never thought of Garota de Ipanema as being Astrud's song or anything like that. Not to say whatever happened to her wasn't unfair, of course, but her interpretation of the song is one among many. The song is Vinícius and Tom's.

ryanisnan 3y ago

Why am I reading about this on Hacker News? edit: Editing to say, I don't mean this in a condescending way, or that this person's passing is irrelevant. I more precisely mean to say that I don't understand how this content is topical to this forum.

rvz 3y ago
> edit: Editing to say, I don't mean this in a condescending way, or that this person's passing is irrelevant. I more precisely mean to say that I don't understand how this content is topical to this forum. You're totally right but people can mourn here about those who have passed on if they want to and they are free to do so. Whether if a black bar will appear for this individual or if this post is allowed on the front page is another question. However at this point, the guidelines on this orange site are not fit for purpose anyway. Not even the moderators here follow it and add 'exceptions' to the rule from time to time.
indigoabstract 3y ago
I think it's because she is important for some of the folks here and they'd like to know about it. From the number of points & comments, I don't think it's really off-topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Besides, I also found out about Queen Elizabeth's passing last year by reading it on HN.
speed_spread 3y ago
She made good coding music.
- 3wolf 3y ago
  Bossa nova is some of my favorite music to listen to while working. It's mellow, soothing, but never boring. Also, being in a foreign language helps minimize distraction. RIP
- ElevenFingers 3y ago
  “astrid gilberto radio ⌨ - bossanova to code/program to”

denvaar 3y ago

One of my favorite recording of her was on a Dutch TV show. Pretty cool footage https://youtu.be/13YKO0Vwz8E https://youtu.be/13YKO0Vwz8E

Avshalom 3y ago
I love old footage from when people didn't know what they were platforming. The Monks invented punk and they're just introduced as "oh hey here's a local band"

rmason 3y ago

I've got a friend who wrote about meeting Astrud Gilberto through contacts in the music business. As a teen he had a crush on her, I think everyone of a certain age certainly did. Here's how he described her, "She was a 45-year-old woman, in an 18-year-old body, with a 14-year-old mind." I've learned that in meeting an idol that you how you imagine someone might be is seldom how they really are in real life.

AlbertCory 3y ago

Fortunately, we still have Flora: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Purim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_Purim (Not bossa nova, though.) Personally, except for (maybe) French, Portuguese is the non-English language I most like to hear someone singing in.

jacquesm 3y ago
If you like Flora Purim check out 'What game shall we play today' with Return to Forever.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  Yep, I have that.

lemax 3y ago

While Astrud captured a beautiful english rendition of this song, the lure and enchantment of bossa and samba is lost quite easily to my ears when english vocals chime in. If you love this stuff and you want to branch out from well known Getz and Jobim, hear Paulinho Da Viola, Gabor Szabo, Novos Bainanos, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia - you’ll find some of these in any classics loving brasileira’s vinyl crate. https://youtu.be/ZQNIa6VhHoY https://youtu.be/ZQNIa6VhHoY https://youtu.be/0OxmMYXJ8V4 https://youtu.be/0OxmMYXJ8V4 https://youtu.be/0FVPQzKw9bk https://youtu.be/0FVPQzKw9bk https://youtu.be/omZs1q0wnIs https://youtu.be/omZs1q0wnIs

rpgbr 3y ago
Agreed. I just think some of your recommendations, such as Novos Baianos, Gilberto Gil, and Maria Bethânia, aren't exactly bossa nova singers. I’d recommend João Gilberto (who was married with Astrud) and Miúcha. Elis Regina has an astonished album recorded with Tom Jobim in 1974, “Elis & Tom”.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
culebron21 3y ago
I urge others discover the samba (or pagode) genre. With a bit of Portuguese at A2 you'll love it. This is a popular tradition of in company (in backyard -- hence the band name "Fundo do quintão"), and to me this is one of the last genres of music that you can sing together, a capella. They have melody and the text is just right for a human.
- fdgjgbdfhgb 3y ago
  > "Fundo do quintão" Close - it's Fundo de Quintal [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgIdKSv6pl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgIdKSv6pl8
  - muxator 3y ago
    And this is by Demônios da Garoa no less! A band that has been existing for more than 80 years now.

culebron21 3y ago

Rest in peace, Astrud, your simple songs were a gateway into samba and Portuguese to me. I remember hearing them on radio in the late 90s-early 00s, in some un-typical style, unheard to me, and I guess I'd not have been able to google any of these songs out. But then a program on jazz featured bossa nova and mentioned her name among others. I then learned Portuguese and left bossa nova and Gilberto for more elaborate styles and singers, but these still pull a nostalgic string.

xkcd1963 3y ago
What do you mean by "more elaborate"?
- culebron21 3y ago
  to name a few, Paulinho da Viola, Jorge Aragão, Fundo de Quintal