12/29/08

late december beach samba


a brief, late night ode to astrud gilberto: of course you can read her bio on wikipedia, for i don't care to rehash the infinite fascinating facts that a goddess of her stature is sure to amass in one tangled lifetime.

no, no, i just want to proclaim my new found love of her. my friend and ex co-worker john introduced me to her work beyond 'the girl from ipanema' via his patented mid-day playlist. i found this record 'beach samba' (still sealed!) at the good record stand in a clark park flea market last summer, and have since listened to it constantly. she's got these silky brazilian vocals soft and wispy over perky samba jazz (which at times is almost show tune-y and at other times reminds me of stereolab). and come on! there's a song on the b-side where she duets with her 6 year old son marcello, it's called 'you didn't have to be so nice.' it's the cutest thing of all time. his voice is all tiny and meek and hers is warm and strong. kinda makes you feel like you're snuggling with somebody under a thin sheet on the beach, napping in the shade of a wobbly umbrella. and that's a nice way to feel in late december.

love,
emily

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So I read this because for some reason the named seemed recognizable to me... and in reading the description I thought that I had maybe even heard some of her music before. It seemed familiar. But in looking through my iTunes library I didn't have anything by astrud gilberto but I do have a bebel gilberto. (astrud was bebel's father's first wife). I'm now going to try and find some astrud stuff because you made it sound pretty good, and also a lot like the bebel gilberto stuff I have already heard.

I'm sure you guys were wondering such things!!

Followers