Wintertijd

Bertje, that's Jazz V

One of the first things I've written when I started on Jazz was the story about the bulls and how walking down the hill would be key in being able to shag them all. Judging by his career and the music off his 2000 album "Joao voz e Violao", Joao Gilberto embodies this principle. He started playing at 14, managed to be the leader of a band at 15, and went off to play gigs at 18. He then got dumped by the band because apparantly he was an eternal slacker, never getting there in time, failing to show up and all that.

After being fired from a band he drifted around in Brasil, staying at friends and acquaintances for almost ten years without even an address to his name. He smoked copious amounts of ganja and really was lethargic for a long period, untill he got a mentor, laid off the Mary-Jane and started making music seriously. In '59 he recorded his debut album and then did some stuff after that, but he's always been regarded as an eccentric and a fluke. He was however brilliant, so after many many years on the music scene a whole score of artists are influenced by him, even though his own record sales have never matched those artists'. The Brazilians at least recognized his influence on their music when they gave him the nickname "The Legend".

In the year of our Lord 2000 he did something utterly brilliant. He released an album where he played Brazilian Jazz standards by a whole score of composers. Not just Jobim, who is so defining of Bossa that he almost became a cliche, but also other, less known ones (outside of Brazil, I guess). On this album, "Jo?o voz e Viol?o", he flies solo. At the age of 68, he records a whole album, in real-time, live, alone with one acoustic guitar in his lap. It reminds a bit of the "American Recordings" that Johnny Cash did before his death. And we all know Cash is King, so more power to Jo?o for doing this.

The result was 35 minutes of utter brilliance. The album swings like no other, his nasal, understated singing doing it's thing against the backdrop of some really fucking amazing guitar work. Excuse me my French, but this album is so good that I can't express it any other way. I've come to the conclusion that I just love old fogeys, pushing 70, sitting down with a guitar and doing the thing they've excelled at for 40 years. Shows all of them young punks that there is so much more to this music thing than rock'n'roll, testosterone and the right hair-do.

Now I'm almost a bit sad that my pick for this compilation is actually a Jobim tune. It's like doing a compilation on Classical music and putting Mozart in there. It's a given. It's predictable. But the fact remains that what Mozart is to classical music, Jobim is to Bossa. He's simply the man. For those that hate cliches, at least I didn't pick Jobim & Getz doing "The girl from Ipanema", OK?

So without further ado, I herewith present the next song on this compilation: Chega de Saudade performed by Jo?o Gilberto, written by Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Enjoy. I know I did.

Posted by Chris at September 20, 2005 06:12 PM