João Gilberto (João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, Juazeiro, Bahia, Br… Read Full Bio ↴João Gilberto (João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira, Juazeiro, Bahia, Brazil, June 10, 1931 - July 6, 2019) was a Brazilian singer, acoustic guitarist and ocasional songwriter, considered one of the creators of bossa nova with Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes. One of his most famous nicknames is "Pai da Bossa Nova" (Father of Bossa Nova).
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)
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)
Este Seu Olhar
João Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Este seu olhar
Quando encontra o meu
Fala de umas coisas
Que eu não posso acreditar
Doce é sonhar
É pensar que você
Gosta de mim
Como eu de você
Mas a ilusão
Quando se desfaz
Dói no coração
De quem sonhou
Sonhou demais
Ah se eu pudesse entender
O que dizem os seus olhos
Este seu olhar
Quando encontra o meu
Fala de umas coisas
Que eu não posso acreditar
Doce é sonhar
É pensar que você
Gosta de mim
Como eu de você
Mas a ilusão
Quando se desfaz
Dói no coração
De quem sonhou
Sonhou demais
Ah se eu pudesse entender
O que dizem os seus olhos
Quando encontra o meu
Fala de umas coisas
Que eu não posso acreditar
Doce é sonhar
É pensar que você
Gosta de mim
Mas a ilusão
Quando se desfaz
Dói no coração
De quem sonhou
Sonhou demais
Ah se eu pudesse entender
O que dizem os seus olhos
Este seu olhar
Quando encontra o meu
Fala de umas coisas
Que eu não posso acreditar
Doce é sonhar
É pensar que você
Gosta de mim
Como eu de você
Mas a ilusão
Quando se desfaz
Dói no coração
De quem sonhou
Sonhou demais
Ah se eu pudesse entender
O que dizem os seus olhos
The lyrics in João Gilberto's song Este Seu Olhar speak of the complex and often painful nature of love and desire. The song opens with an observation of the way the other person's eyes speak to him, conveying messages that he cannot fully understand or believe. Despite this uncertainty, he finds solace in dreaming and imagining that the person reciprocates his feelings. However, he is also aware that these fantasies can lead to heartbreak if they are not grounded in reality.
There is a profound sense of longing and confusion in these lyrics, as the singer struggles to make sense of the mixed signals he receives from the person he desires. He wishes that he could understand the true meaning behind their eyes and whether they truly reciprocate his love, but he is left feeling uncertain and vulnerable.
The song is a beautiful and melancholic expression of the complexities of love and the ways in which it can both lift us up and break our hearts. It captures the universal experience of hoping for something that may not be possible and the pain that comes when our dreams do not align with reality.
Line by Line Meaning
Este seu olhar
The expression on your face
Quando encontra o meu
When it meets mine
Fala de umas coisas
Speaks of some things
Que eu não posso acreditar
That I can't believe
Doce é sonhar
Sweet is to dream
É pensar que você
To think that you
Gosta de mim
Like me
Como eu de você
As I do of you
Mas a ilusão
But the illusion
Quando se desfaz
When it fades away
Dói no coração
It hurts in the heart
De quem sonhou
Of the one who dreamed
Sonhou demais
Dreamed too much
Ah se eu pudesse entender
Oh if I could understand
O que dizem os seus olhos
What your eyes are saying
Lyrics © CORCOVADO MUSIC CORPORATION
Written by: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@vinicius78alves
These eyes of yours,
when they meet my eyes,
they say somethings I cant believe.
Its sweet to dream,
to think you like me
as I like you
But the illusion, when fades away,
hurts the heart of the one who dreamed,
but dreamed too much..
Oh, If only I could understand
what your eyes say....
_
These eyes of yours,
when they meet my eyes,
they say somethings I cant believe.
Its sweet to dream,
to think you like me
as I like you
But the illusion, when fades away,
hurts the heart of the one who dreamed,
but dreamed too much..
Oh, If only I could understand
what your eyes say....
@AntoTHFC23
Este seu olhar
Quando encontra o meu
Fala de umas coisas
Que eu não posso
Acreditar
Doce é sonhar
É pensar que você
Gosta de mim
Como eu de você
Mas a ilusão
Quando se desfaz
Dói no coração
De quem sonhou
Sonhou demais
Ah! Se eu pudesse entender
O que dizem os seus olhos
Este seu olhar
Quando encontra o meu
Fala de umas coisas
Que eu não posso
Acreditar
Doce é sonhar
É pensar que você
Gosta de mim
Como eu de você
Mas a ilusão
Quando se desfaz
Dói no coração
De quem sonhou
Sonhou demais
Ah! Se eu pudesse entender
O que dizem os seus olhos
@pamtebelman2321
The beauty of simplicity.
@dragmio
Simplicity? Have you ever seen chords for any bossa nova song? Or tried to play the beat?
@pamtebelman2321
@eNeNe I see what you mean, it just comes out sounding easy and breezy, but is undoubtedly more difficult that it appears. I have played the beat and that part comes easy to me. The subject themes of the songs are very basic (the joy of the dance, the beauty the land, the sadness of a broken heart). I've also tried singing it but the language itself is difficult for me because its pronunciation changes so much with each word. It is a beautiful language, however, and I hope to learn it better someday.
@gerardabitbol5680
Faussement simple mais tellement limpide
Quelle grâce !
@katiamoreno5594
Que lindo❤
@RicardoSilveiraCantor
Perfeito, que qualidade absurda!! João Gilberto e Tom Jobim são transcendentais.
@ketlynfarias6415
você até que tem bom gosto ein, hahh
@maiarealplug
falou tudo! nunca perde
@fredwashington2953
Simplesmente o simples e exclusivo! Na alma nos atingiu, o meu muito obrigado eterno!
@pauloantonio5056
Sublime! Obrigado João Gilberto ...!!