Getz / Gilberto

One of the biggest-selling jazz albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto is also a defining bossa nova record. Building on the success of Jazz Samba, it brought together two of the style’s key innovators, João Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, with Stan Getz in New York. The result is something truly special.

By the time this album arrived, the jazz world had been flooded with bossa nova releases and the sound was starting to risk feeling like a passing trend. Getz/Gilberto changed that completely, securing bossa nova’s place in jazz with a set of remarkable performances and one of the biggest hit singles the genre has ever seen, The Girl From Ipanema.

That song, written by Jobim and sung by João Gilberto’s wife Astrud Gilberto, became an instant classic. Remarkably, Astrud had never performed outside her own home before these sessions. She also features on Corcovado, while the album’s tracklist is packed with Jobim compositions that would go on to become genre standards, including So Danço Samba, O Grande Amor and a new version of Desafinado.

It’s not just the songwriting that makes this album endure. The playing throughout is beautifully unforced, full of warmth, poise and understated sophistication. Getz is as lyrical as ever, and Gilberto and Jobim bring the harmonic and rhythmic subtlety of these songs to life with a relaxed, intimate charm.

With its dreamy romanticism and near-universal appeal, Getz/Gilberto remains one of those rare jazz records embraced equally by devoted purists and the wider record-buying public. An essential listen.