A self-taught guitarist and singer, Gilberto moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1950 and joined the vocal group Garotos da Lua ("The Boys of the Moon") as their lead singer. After a year and a half, he was kicked out of the group for his lack of discipline and spent the next several years in a marginal existence. Eventually, he found his way, creating a new way to express himself in voice and on the guitar. The result of his obsessive experiments became known as bossa nova.
Bossa nova is a refined version of samba, deemphasizing the percussive aspect of its rhythm and enriching the melodic and harmonic content. Rather than relying on the traditional Afro-Brazilian percussive instruments, bossa nova usually utilizes a drum set. João Gilberto often eschews all accompaniment, using only his guitar, which he uses as a percussive as well as a harmonic instrument. The singing style he developed is almost whispering, economical, and without vibrato. He creates his tempo tensions by singing ahead or behind the guitar.
This style, which Gilberto introduced in 1957, created a sensation in the musical circles of Rio's Zona Sul, and many young guitarists sought to imitate it. It was first heard on record in 1958 when João Gilberto accompanied singer Elizete Cardoso in a recording of "Chega de Saudade", a song by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. Shortly after this recording, João Gilberto made his own debut single of the same song, followed by the 1959 LP, Chega de Saudade. The song became a hit, launching Gilberto's career and the bossa nova craze.
Besides a number of Jobim compositions, the album Chega de Saudade featured older sambas and popular songs from the 1940s and '50s, all performed in the distinctive bossa nova style. This album was followed by two more in 1960 and 1961, by which time the singer featured new songs by a younger generation of performer/composers such as Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal.
By 1962, bossa nova had been embraced by such North American jazz musicians as Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd, and Stan Getz, who invited Gilberto and Jobim to collaborate on what became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, Getz/Gilberto. Through this album, Gilberto's wife, Astrud, became an international star, and the Jobim/de Moraes composition "The Girl from Ipanema" became a worldwide pop music standard for the ages.
João Gilberto continued to perform through the 1960s but did not release another studio album until João Gilberto en México, recorded in 1970 during a period of residence in Mexico. João Gilberto, aka the "White Album" (1973), featured hypnotic minimalist execution and is widely considered to be his best album. The year 1976 saw the release of The Best of Two Worlds, a reunion with Stan Getz, featuring singer Miúcha, sister of Chico Buarque, who had become Gilberto's second wife in April 1965. Amoroso (1977) backed Gilberto with the lush string orchestration of Claus Ogerman, who had provided a similar sound to Jobim's instrumental recordings in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As had been the case for all of Gilberto's albums, the album consisted mostly of Jobim compositions, mixed with older sambas and an occasional North American standard from the 1940s.
Having lived in the US since 1962, João Gilberto returned to Brazil in 1980. The following year saw the release of Brasil, with guests Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who in the late 1960s had founded the Tropicalia movement, a fusion of Brazilian popular music with foreign pop. The 1991 release, João, with orchestrations by Clare Fischer, was unusual in its lack of even a single Jobim composition, instead featuring songs in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, plus old sambas and the solitary contemporary song "Sampa" (Caetano Veloso). Also released in 1991 was the album Canto Do Pajé by Veloso's sister Maria Bethânia on which Bethânia and Gilberto sing an intimate duet Maria/Linda Flor (Barroso, Peixoto, Vogler, Costa, and Pôrto) accompanied solely by his guitar. João Voz e Violão (2000) was an homage to the music of Gilberto's youth as well as a nod to producer Caetano Veloso.
Evenly interspersed with these studio recordings have been the live recordings, Live in Montreux; João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira; Eu Sei Que Vou Te Amar; Live at Umbria Jazz, and Live in Tokyo.
While all of Gilberto's albums since Getz/Gilberto have been released on CD, the first three domestic albums were released in 1988 by EMI on a single CD entitled The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-1961). The disc also included three tracks from the singer's 1959 Orfeu Negro EP: "Manhã de Carnaval," O Nosso Amor, and A Felicidade, the latter two merged into a single medley track to fit within the recording time of a CD. After its release, Gilberto successfully sued to have the title removed from sale as an unauthorized release of his artistic works.
João Gilberto has long had a reputation as an eccentric recluse and a nearly neurotic perfectionist. He lives in an apartment in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, refusing all interviews and avoiding crowds. He has been known to walk out on performances in response to an audience he considers disrespectful or out of theaters possessing acoustics below his standards, and at times demands that the air conditioning be turned off at concert venues. Yet he continues to perform to sell-out crowds in Brazil as well as in Europe, North America, and Japan.
Discography:
1959 - Chega de Saudade (Odeon)
1960 - O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor (Odeon)
1961 - João Gilberto (Odeon)
1962 - The Boss of the Bossa Nova (Atlantic)
1963 - The Warm World of João Gilberto (Atlantic)
1964 - Getz/Gilberto (Verve)
1965 - Herbie Mann & João Gilberto (Atlantic)
1974 - João Gilberto en Mexico (PolyGram)
1976 - Best of Two Worlds (Columbia)
1977 - Amoroso (Warner Brothers)
1981 - Brasil (Warner Brothers)
1986 - João Gilberto Live in Montreux (WEA)
1991 - João (PolyGram)
2000 - João Voz e Violão (Universal)
2002 - Live at Umbria Jazz (Egea)
2004 - João Gilberto in Tokyo (Verve)
Astronauta
João Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mora só no pensa - mento
Ou então no firmamento
Em tudo que no céu vi - a - ja
Pode ser um as - tronauta
Ou ainda um Passarinho
Ou virou um pé de vento
Pipa de papel de seda
Pode estar num asteróide
Pode ser a estrela D'alva
Que daqui se olha
Pode estar morando em Marte
Nunca mais se soube dela
Desapareceu
These lyrics are from João Gilberto's song Astronauta, which talks about a woman who leads a solitary life, either in her own thoughts or in the universe. She could be an astronaut or a bird, and she may have transformed into a gust of wind, a paper kite or a balloon. She could also be living on an asteroid or on Mars, as she has disappeared from Earth. The song is about the desire to escape, to transcend the mundane and to explore the unknown.
The lyrics present a motif of loneliness and psychological escape, as the woman seems to be seeking solace in the cosmos. The idea of becoming an astronaut is significant because space travel represents the ultimate form of separation from the familiar, as it involves leaving the atmosphere and defying gravity. Moreover, it signifies the triumph of human curiosity, as it allows us to explore new worlds and encounter the mysterious. Gilberto's lyrics present space travel as a form of spiritual or emotional liberation, as well as a physical exploration of the universe.
Line by Line Meaning
Ela agora
He is referring to a woman who used to be with him but now she's gone.
Mora só no pensamento
She now lives only in his thoughts, and he cannot get her out of his head.
Ou então no firmamento
She could be in the sky or the heavens, which means she might have left him for another world or died.
Em tudo que no céu viaja
In everything that travels in the sky, he sees her reflecting.
Pode ser um astronauta
She could be an astronaut searching for new life or exploring different worlds.
Ou ainda um passarinho
She could be a bird flying high above the sky, free from any worries and dangers.
Ou virou um pé de vento
She could be a gust of wind that passes by him, elusive and unpredictable.
Pipa de papel de seda
She could be a kite made of paper and silk, carried away by the wind.
Ou quem sabe um balãozinho
She could be a small balloon rising up into the sky, always out of reach.
Pode estar num asteroide
She could be lost in space, traveling through an asteroid belt, and far, far away from him.
Pode ser a estrela D'alva
She could be the morning star or the first light of dawn, an eternal symbol of hope and new beginnings.
Que daqui se olha
He looks at the sky, searching for her, hoping to see a sign that she is still alive.
Pode estar morando em Marte
She could have traveled to Mars, living in isolation or with a new lover, far away from him.
Nunca mais se soube dela
He has not heard from her in a long time, and he fears that he will never see her again.
Desapareceu
She disappeared, and he cannot understand what happened or how to find her.
Writer(s): Carlos Pingarilho, Marcos Vasconcellos, Samba Do Pregunta
Contributed by Kaitlyn T. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Mr. Pitch DJ
Fantástica canção composta por Carlos Alberto Pingarilho e Marcos Vasconcellos. Lançada no álbum João Gilberto En Mexico de 1970.
João Pedro Ribeiro
essa é relíquia!
Juan Manuel Casellas
La canción podría llamarse perfectamente melancolía.
Grethel Quintero
❤️
BAYSTARS2023
0:17 人と木の競り合いじゃ 🎶
Nicoly Nasci
Hii