Chega de saudade, Joãozinho

Last Saturday João Gilberto passed away at age 88, of natural causes, at his home in Rio de Janeiro. Contrary to his reputation of being a recluse and despite his age, only four days earlier he had gone out for dinner with his partner and his attorney, a rather central figure in his life of late.

Since his passing, the outpour of love and recognition from all over the world for the singer and guitarist has been overwhelming. Part of it is due to João's public visibility thanks to his success in the USA in the early 1960s—I'm sure I'm not the only one to play Getz/Gilberto, a sensational record, from track #2 onwards, skipping “The Girl from Ipanema”.

But beyond fame—the one aspect Brazil's current president was able to acknowledge—what made João special? In jazz terms, he was to bossa nova what Charlie Parker was to bebop.

The drums of bossa nova

Marketing has gone truly global. At least for those of us living in the Western world and glued to a screen with access to the internet, there are trends that everybody seem to subscribe to, at least for a minute.

Right this minute, there are two trends leading to Brazil, one the biggest in the world, the other just a musical footnote. The latter is about the 50th anniversary of the release of Getz/Gilberto (never mind all the empty blurbs — it is a masterpiece), which may give the impression that bossa-nova is all Brazil ever had to offer musically (it isn't) or even that it didn't really blossom till the Americans got involved in it.

Again, publicity-wise that may be true, but musically nothing surpasses João Gilberto's first three albums recorded between 1959 and 1961 back in Brazil. And even for the Americans, things didn't really take off until, after a few trials on their own, they got the Brazilians involved, which made the difference between great (like Stan Getz's album with Charlie Byrd) and a masterpiece.

Listening to Jazz/Samba and Getz/Gilberto, there's one huge difference between the two albums. Whereas for the former it seemed necessary to have two drummers to reproduce Brazilian rhythms (and the percussion gets quite heavy), there's only one drummer on the latter, and what he does is a wonder of subtlety and dynamics. It's Washington D.C. v. Rio de Janeiro; Deppenschmidt & Reichenbach v. Banana.

Milton Banana (c. 1979)

When I first read the name Milton Banana as the drummer in Getz/Gilberto, I thought it was a joke. It was actually the alias of Antônio de Souza (1935-1998), who not only played on Getz/Gilberto, but also on João Gilberto's first LP, which established what we know as bossa. He was the original bossa-nova drummer.

PS: João Gilberto at 80 - 2011 tour

© AFP

Thanks to a reader's question, I've checked the news on Gilberto's birthday, and according to Globo.com he's doing a mini tour of 5 to 8 shows in Brazil between August 29th and November 30th. So far five cities have been confirmed: São Paulo (Sep 3, HSBC Brasil), Rio (Sep 10, Rio Vivo), and dates are to be announced for Salvador, Porto Alegre, and Brasília.

The tour is called 80 anos – Uma vida bossa nova and there are plans for two DVDs to be recorded.

Glad to hear that he's well enough to tour at 80.

Good luck if you're trying to get a ticket, and let us know how it went.

João Gilberto at 80

Tomorrow João Gilberto celebrates his 80th birthday. It would be hard to overstate his importance in popular music of the 20th century. As a singer and as guitarist he's the owner of a very distinctive touch, one of those rare virtuosos whose abilities pass as simple and efortless, concealing hours of almost obsessive work in his quest for perfection. Even if this is a matter of personal taste, anyone is likely to appreciate the pure magic that his music emanates. I really wish he has a good birthday and that he is in peace, above all the tired press reports about his "reclusive personality" and other frankly strange issues (like the FaceBook profile that may or may not have been really his).

Regarding FaceBook, I still keep buggering on with my little campaign:

The rest of us will have to keep waiting for an official reissue of his first three LPs. As I have explained before, Gilberto and EMI – owners of the masters – have been horn-locked in the Brazilian courts for the best part of 15 years, which has prevented the world from enjoying the artist's first three albums. Right before The Legendary... / O Mito was removed from the market it was printed as two separate CDs by Time Life in Spain, as part of a collection of classic EMI-owned jazz albums. That reissue comes up every once in a while in bargain bins and discount shops in London and even in the US.

For impatient listeners, él!/Cherry Records, a British label, has published two interesting reissues of the first two albums, which is completely legal in the EU, something that some on the other side of the pond fail to grasp. There's still plenty to argue about this, but in the EU the mechanical rights for those two LPs, and soon for the third, are public domain.

Meanwhile, in the courts things don't seem to be moving much. I found a few reports at Terra Magazine, a Brazilian on-line mag. This is the summary:

• The lawsuit is expected to be solved in 2011, by the High Court in Brazilia, but obviously not in time for Gilberto's 80th birthday.
• Despite rumours stating otherwise, EMI says the original masters are in Brazil.
• Gilberto has listened to the masters but he's not recognized them as the originals. He'd be ready to work on a new remaster.
• According to Ricardo Garcia (technician appointed by EMI) reverb (echo) was added for a false stereo effect on the original mono recordings from the album Chega de Saudade, and high frequencies were forced up by equalization.
• According to Paulo Jobim, Antonio Carlos's son, who's involved in the case (on Gilberto's side), in the CD master strings and drums were favoured over guitar and vocals, and too much equalization has changed the timbre of the singer.
• Paulo Jobim was present at the original sessions. Apparently, Gilberto made, and was granted, the unprecendeted request of having two microphones, one for the guitar, one for the voice. He was a stinking perfectionist, even though the recordings were made live, with no overdubbing.
• Apparently, when they were going to do The Legendary... / O Mito, EMI/Odeon tried to obtain Gilberto's authorization to reissue the LPs on CD through composer Nelson Motta, but never got a reply.
• Caetano Veloso, and advisor to Gilberto's lawyers, argues that a single CD detracts value from the product and, eventually, the artist.
• Gilberto also has denounced the use of one of his songs for a commercial without his permission

By the look of it, if money is not an issue – a big "if", given EMI's situation – there shouldn't be much problem to get to a solution. I do think that Veloso's argument for a reissue in 3 separate CDs is not realistic. For starters all the music fits in a single CD, and the original LPs, all under the 30-minute mark hardly justify the format he suggests. In this day an age, a CD really has to be special to merit some attention from the potential buyers. Some heavy marketing will be needed too – and whoever has to do it will long for the missed anniversaries, the 50th of bossa in 2008/9 and now his 80th birthday.

Here's hoping that it happens soon.

And happy birthday!

KBO: João Gilberto

A few weeks ago I told you about this little campaign I've started on Facebook to ask for EMI and Mr. João Gilberto to reach an agreement and give the world a proper reissue of the truly wonderful music Mr. Gilberto recorded in his first three albums.

Since then, a few well-intentioned friends have warned me of the unlikelihood of such enterprise. "You won't achieve your goal", they say.

It may well be so. I'm well aware of the crisis in the music industry, and of EMI¡s problems in particular. But nobody will able to say that I didn't try. I think it's a disgrace that so many people have never heard this music, a little spark of genius that happened to be recorded in Brazil around fifty years ago. It had Vinicius's poetry, Jobim's musicality, but first and foremost, Mr. Gilberto's total commitment to the music. They say he's a perfectionist, a difficult man. I say he's just completely devoted to music: if you watch any videos of him, and there are plenty, you'll notice how his whole face shapes around each exact note he sings.

I, or rather, we may not get EMI to publish an official reissue. But it won't be because we didn't speak up.

Like the song says if someone doesn't like this music, it's because "they're not good people, either they have a bad head, or bad feet".

João Gilberto, EMI, and us

(El texto en español está aquí)

One of many singular aspects of the 20th century, is what happened to popular music. It could be said that, from a traditional or folk form of expression, it got more and more sophisticated artistically while still keeping some of its folk qualities. While that tension was kept – until sometime in the second half of last century – a great treasure trove of jazz and pop was created and, some of it, preserved. Personally, I think what we know as "bossa nova" fits that picture perfectly.

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the 50th anniversary of João Gilberto's first recording of "Chega de Saudade", and commented on the deadlock between the singer/guitarist and EMI, the owner of the master tapes of Gilberto's first three albums. The result is us not having a proper, readily available, way to enjoy a masterpiece.

In 1990 EMI did a reissue with all three albums crammed in one CD. Apparently Gilberto was not consulted and was subsequently unhappy for the sound quality and other liberties taken, such as combining "O Nosso Amor" and "A Felicidade" into a medley (which is debatable, although it does make sense: those two tracks were not in the original LPs, both are versions of tunes from the film Black Orpheus, and both are the only ones to feature a batucada). That CD (O mito in Brazil, The Legendary... in the rest of the world) was removed by a court order in 1997 and since then Gilberto and EMI have not reached an agreement.

This year not only marks the singer's 80th birthday (June 10th), but also all this music's becoming public domain in Europe. From EMI's point of view, this can be quite discouraging, but I truly think that a reissue, carefully done, can beat whatever whoever does with other sources. So far, UK label él records have released the first two albums, on individual CDs, and the results are pretty good, to be fair. The sound is not perfect, possibly taken from clean LPs, but still better than the 1990 EMI; the liner notes are informative and they have added relevant extra tracks, versions of Gilberto's songs by other artists.

One of the good things about those extra tracks, is that they provide a neat picture of Gilberto's impact when his “Chega de saudade” came out. Judging from Elizete Cardoso's earlier version of “Chega...”, which was the original and had already part of Jobim's classic arrangement, Gilberto's singing and playing must have been a real shocker! From our point of view, we may think that all the criticisms of being out of tune or just plain weird were made by extremely narrow-minded people. I think they can only be accused of not knowing how to react to something really new (and we owe them the inspiration for “Desafinado”, after all).

The music in those three LPs is pure magic. It's one of the best examples of music as a moving force, and one of the summits of 20th century popular music, bar none. The tragedy is that there are many people in the world today who have NEVER heard it.

That's why I think that Mr. Gilberto and EMI should try to reach an agreement and do this properly. If the three albums don't fit in a CD (I think they actually do, even with “... Nosso Amor” and “... Felicidade” as single tracks) they should do a 2-CD set, with pristine remastering, a big fat booklet explaining who are these guys (Gilberto, Jobim, de Moraes, etc.)

A friend, also a music lover, asked me the other day: “But would it sell?”

It will. It has to.

In the meantime, and if you're on Facebook, you're welcome to "like" this page. It'll cost you nothing, and you may be contributing to a worthy cause.

***



"Brigas, nunca mais"
(Jobim, de Moraes)

João Gilberto, vocals and guitar
Edmundo Maciel, trombone
Antonio Carlos Jobim, piano and arrangements
Milton Banana, drums
Rubens Bassini, percussion
plus strings

January 23, 1959