A Tribute to the Women I Admire- (3) – Astrud Gilberto
March 8 is International Women’s Day. So this week March 5-10, I will present a tribute to some of the women-artists that I admire for their great passion, dedication and conviction.I have made these tribute portraits in the form of artist trading cards – 2.5″ x 3.5″. I believe the word about the life and works of these women-artists have to be spread as shining examples.
 |
|
“Astrud’s Warm Waves”
A Portrait of Astrud Gilberto
a performing artist who brings warmth to the hearts of her audience
a digital collage by Paulina Constancia |
The first time I heard her name was from my piano teacher Ben Casquejo. He gave me “The Girl from Ipanema” sheet music and I have since been a fan of Astrud Gilberto. All I can say is that Astrud’s music has kept me company at many points in my life. I remember while in Vermont experiencing my first winter, it didn’t matter how cold it was outside, when I had Astrud’s music playing – my spirit was soaking in warm tropical waves. To a sentimental islander like myself, her voice was a soothing balm to homesickness.
Here are the elements I used to make the collage above:
 |
| (1) Astrud photo by Clif Garboden,(2) Ipanema Beach, (3) saxophonist Stan Getz,(4) Palm trees fabric, (5) Beach cats fabric,(6) Palm trees fabric Let us get to know Astrud Gilberto – singer,composer, arranger, painter, animal rights and world peace advocate….
|
Excerpts from her Biography
Source: Wikipedia
“Astrud Gilberto was born March 30, 1940 as Astrud Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. She married João Gilberto in 1959 and emigrated to the United States in 1963, continuing to reside in the US from that time. Astrud and João divorced in the mid-1960s and she began a relationship with her musical partner, Stan Getz.
She sang on the influential album Getz/Gilberto featuring João Gilberto, Stan Getz, and Antonio Carlos Jobim. She had never performed professionally, and sang on the recordings at the suggestion of her (then) husband, João Gilberto.
Gilberto’s recording of “The Girl from Ipanema” established her as a jazz and pop singer. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. In 1964, Gilberto appeared in the films Get Yourself a College Girl and The Hanged Man. Her first solo album was The Astrud Gilberto Album (1964). Upon moving to the United States, she went on tour with Getz. Beginning as a singer of bossa nova and American jazz standards, Gilberto started to record her own compositions in the 1970s. Her repertoire includes “The Shadow of Your Smile”, “It Might as Well Be Spring”, “Love Story”, “Fly Me to the Moon”, “Day by Day”, “Here’s That Rainy Day”, and “Look to the Rainbow”. She has recorded songs in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Japanese.”
Here’s what the Verve Music Group says about Astrud:
“Among master deliverers of the casual-sounding, off-handed vocal, Astrud Gilberto stands out. Her crisp Brazilian accent flavors every English vowel and consonant she utters. The lyrics to all the songs she has performed and recorded during her long career suggest her own sentiments and philosophy. An ardent advocate of animal rights and world peace, Gilberto composes and arranges some of the music she performs nowadays. Decades ago, if she picked Benny Carter and Sammy Chan’s “Only Trust Your Heart,” or Burton Lane and Yip Harburg’s “Look to the Rainbow,” she might have been letting her listeners know what mattered to her.
Love has been key. Indeed, love is Gilberto’s favorite, if not her only subject. Sensually and philosophically, the song lyrics she favors give her plenty of room to flirt, sigh, whisper, pout, hug, kiss, caress, question, care, and conquer.
The voice of Astrud Gilberto – guileless, believable, never cold-bloodedly professional – sometimes becomes a French horn, sometimes a tenderly bowed cello, and other times a clarinet or a breathy bamboo flute. Sometimes it even takes on the tremulous quiver of a tenor saxophone. But whether it finds itself swimming in a pond or an ocean – with intimate trio or quintet, or in full orchestral setting – Gilberto’s voice, presumed to be delicate but buoyed by love, always swims home to the heart”.
 |
| Watch Astrud perform ‘Girl from Ipanema’ (1964) with saxophonist Stan Getz |
Read more about Astrud from her own website
Read about the woman who inspired the song “The Girl from Ipanema/Garota de Ipanema”
Recent Comments