1. Grandfather's Waltz
2. Tonight I Shall Sleep (With a Smile on
My Face)
3. Stan's Blues
4. Here's That Rainy Day
5. Samba De Minha Terra
6. Rosa Moreno
7. Um Abraco No Bonfa
8. Bim Bom
9. Meditation
10. O Pato
Stan Getz - Tenor sax (tracks 1-4)
Gary Burton - Vibes (tracks 1-4)
Eugene Cherico - Bass (tracks 1-4)
Joe Hunt - Drums (tracks 1-4)
Joao Gilberto - Guitar, vocals (tracks 5-10)
Keeter Betts - Bass (tracks 5-10)
Helcio Milito - Drums (tracks
5-10)
This is a strange album.
The original LP was released in 1964, a year
after the more famous Getz/Gilberto
album, which had included Stan Getz playing
with Joao Gilberto and Joao's wife, Astrud.
When Getz/Gilberto No. 2 was reissued
as a remastered CD in 1993, it contained five
bonus tracks which are not included on this
new CD, which contains separate performances
by small groups led respectively by Stan Getz
and Joao Gilberto (with no sign of Astrud).
The separation may be explained by the fact
that Stan Getz had an affair with Astrud Gilberto
(possibly before or after she was divorced
from Joao), which may have alienated Joao.
So we start by hearing Getz's
quartet, with Gary Burton playing superbly
on vibes. Burton had only joined Getz at the
beginning of 1964 but he had already settled
in as the ideal accompanist and soloist for
Stan. You can understand why Stan Getz had
had such success with the bossa nova,
as his enticingly liquid sound was well-suited
to this new, gentler form of the samba.
Joao Gilberto was actually
one of the originators of bossa nova,
and his segment of the album consists primarily
of his guitar accompanying his caressing voice
in bossa tunes. The drawback is that
he is accompanied by two jazzmen who are buried
in the background, perhaps because they were
not experts in this particular rhythm. It
makes for a rather lacklustre series of tracks,
compared with the eloquence of the Getz quartet.
The album was recorded at
a concert in October 1964 at the Carnegie
Hall, with an audience applauding intrusively
- even clapping at the wrong times (for example,
in the midst of a sax-and-drums exchange on
Stan's Blues). Listeners may well feel
short-changed by an album which lasts for
only 35 minutes and includes only four tracks
by Getz and six by Gilberto. The preceding
Getz/Gilberto album is preferable -
or the classic Jazz Samba album which
introduced Stan Getz to us as an exponent
of the new thing, the bossa nova.
Tony Augarde
CD Reviews
Verve 0602517679283
