Astrud Gilberto
b. 1940, Bahia, Brazil. Gilberto's career began by accident in March 1963 during a recording session featuring her husband, guitarist Joao Gilberto, and saxophonist Stan Getz. A projected track, The Girl From Ipanema, required a singer conversant with English and although strictly a non-professional, Astrud was coaxed into performing the soft, sang-froid vocal. Her contribution was considered relatively unimportant—early pressings of the resultant STAN GETZ/JOAO GILBERTO did not credit the singer—even when the track was issued as a single the following year. The Girl From Ipanema eventually reached the US Top 5 and UK Top 20, garnering sales in excess of one million and forever binding the artist to the subject of the song. Astrud later toured with Getz; their collaboration was chronicled on GETZ AU GO GO, but she later pursued an independent career, bringing her distinctive, if limited, style to a variety of material, including standards, Brazilian samba/bossa nova and contemporary songs from Tim Hardin, Jimmy Webb and The Doors. Gilberto was the subject of renewed attention when Ipanema re-entered the UK charts in 1984 as a result of the UK bossa nova/jazz revival perpetrated by artists such as Everything But The Girl, The Style Council, Weekend and Sade.