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)
Maria Ninguém
João Gilberto Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pode ser que haja alma melhor, pode ser
Pode ser que haja alma pior, muito bem
Mas igual à Maria que eu tenho
No mundo inteirinho
Igualzinha não tem
Maria Ninguém
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria ninguém
Maria Ninguém
É Maria como as outras também
Só que tem que ainda é melhor
Do que muita Maria que há por aí
Marias tão frias, cheias de manias
Marias vazias pro nome que tem
Maria Ninguém
É um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria
E Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria ninguém
Maria ninguém
É um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria
E Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
Pode ser que haja alma pior, muito bem
Mas igual à Maria que eu tenho
No mundo inteirinho
Igualzinha não tem
Maria Ninguém
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
Maria que é minha é Maria ninguém
Maria Ninguém
É Maria como as outras também
Só que tem que ainda é melhor
Do que muita Maria que há por aí
Marias tão frias, cheias de manias
Marias vazias pro nome que tem
Maria Ninguém
É um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria
E Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria ninguém
Maria ninguém
É um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria
E Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
The lyrics to João Gilberto's "Maria Ninguém" employ a clever play on words to describe the singer's love interest. The first verse sets up the idea that there may be better or worse souls out there than the one he has found in Maria, but there is no one exactly like her in the whole world. The chorus repeats the phrase "Maria Ninguém" (translating to "Maria Nobody") several times, but with a different connotation each time. It represents both the uniqueness of his beloved and the fact that she has a lowly status in society, as well as a commentary on the many women named Maria in Brazil, but none like his Maria.
Line by Line Meaning
Pode ser que haja alma melhor, pode ser
There might exist better souls, it's a possibility
Pode ser que haja alma pior, muito bem
There might exist worse souls, that's okay
Mas igual à Maria que eu tenho
But when it comes to the Maria I have
No mundo inteirinho
In the whole wide world
Igualzinha não tem
There's no one quite the same
Maria Ninguém
Maria Nobody
É Maria e é Maria, meu bem
She's Maria and she's just Maria, my dear
Se eu não sou João de nada
If I'm not João of anything
Maria que é minha é Maria ninguém
My Maria is Maria Nobody
É Maria como as outras também
She's Maria like the others are
Só que tem que ainda é melhor
But she has something that makes her still better
Do que muita Maria que há por aí
Than many Marias out there
Marias tão frias, cheias de manias
Marias so cold, full of quirks
Marias vazias pro nome que tem
Marias empty considering their name
É um dom que muito homem não tem
It's a gift that many men don't have
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria
Considering how many people call out for Maria
E Maria não vem
And Maria doesn't come
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Carlos Eduardo Lyra Barbosa
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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@CaloisNazario
Pode ser que haja uma melhor, pode ser
Pode ser que haja uma pior, muito bem
Mas igual à Maria que eu tenho
No mundo inteirinho igualzinha não tem
Maria Ninguém, é Maria e é Maria meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
Maria Ninguém é Maria como as outras também
Só que tem que ainda é melhor do que muita Maria que há por aí
Marias tão frias cheias de manias, Marias vazias pro nome que têm
Maria Ninguém é um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria e Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém, é Maria e é Maria meu bem
Se eu não sou João de Nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
@prickaeu6548
Pode ser que haja uma melhor, pode ser
Pode ser que haja uma pior, muito bem
Mas igual à Maria que eu tenho
No mundo inteirinho igualzinha não tem
Maria Ninguém, é Maria e é Maria meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
Maria Ninguém é Maria como as outras também
Só que tem que ainda é melhor do que muita Maria que há por aí
Marias tão frias cheias de manias, Marias vazias pro nome que têm
Maria Ninguém é um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria e Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém, é Maria e é Maria meu bem
Se eu não sou João de Nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
@prickaeu6548
Letra Maria Ninguém ...
Pode ser que haja uma melhor, pode ser
Pode ser que haja uma pior, muito bem
Mas igual à Maria que eu tenho
No mundo inteirinho igualzinha não tem
Maria Ninguém, é Maria e é Maria meu bem
Se eu não sou João de nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
Maria Ninguém é Maria como as outras também
Só que tem que ainda é melhor do que muita Maria que há por aí
Marias tão frias cheias de manias, Marias vazias pro nome que têm
Maria Ninguém é um dom que muito homem não tem
Haja visto quanta gente que chama Maria e Maria não vem
Maria Ninguém, é Maria e é Maria meu bem
Se eu não sou João de Nada
Maria que é minha é Maria Ninguém
@therockabillie
Vá em paz, João. Missão cumprida.
@soniareginanovaesangelo3058
Que pena,os melhores estão indo embora,esse ano foi muito triste para os compositores,cantores…o céu deve estar em festa!
Vá em paz Carlos Lyra obrigada pelas músicas lindas que compôs!❤❤
@robertocesar3884
Excelente violonista e de singular interpretação vocal, João Gilberto revolucionou a MPB e a levou para o mundo.
@helencoach1891
Adiós Maestro, querido y adorado Artista, lleno de sensibilidad y exquisitez. No se puede ser mas elegante. ¡GRACIAS!
@paulinhocallesilva9395
Si con el se fue la música brasileña
@82LUFT
I don't understand one word Joao is singing, but nevertheless I love this song. Wish I spoke it. Great Bosa Nova sound.
@Janjo64
James L. same dude I love it either way
@anzoanz1842
Same here lads!
@sandrarisso5717
Yraducir a rspaño
@mrtunasandwhich6799
same