Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz & João Gilberto

Getz/Gilberto (1964) is a collaboration between American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto. Though it wasn't the first bossa nova album released outside of Brazil, it was the one responsible for turning the genre into a worldwide phenomenon.

Bossa nova—roughly “new wave” or “new trend”—appeared in late 50s Brazil, blending the local samba with outside influences like American cool jazz to create a genre that was as subtle as it was danceable. At a time when jazz was losing its place at the top of the charts, American jazz musicians saw in this new style an opportunity to breathe fresh air into the genre, with a surge of albums mimicking the style popping up in the early 60s.

Of these efforts, Getz/Gilberto was by far the most successful, selling two million copies in 1964 and taking up the #2 spot in the Billboard charts for 96 weeks straight (losing only to the Beatles' A Hard Days' Night.)

Featured in the recording are Antônio Carlos Jobim on piano—who, alongside Gilberto, composed many of the songs on the album—and Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto's wife, whose enchanting performances in “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Corcovado” would turn her into a household name.

An aside: the recording process for this record was quite troubled. João Gilberto and Stan Getz did not speak a common language, and often struggled to communicate their creative visions to each other, with Jobim often having to work double-time as their translator.

It did not help that João Gilberto strongly disagreed with many of Getz's decisions—from the volume of his saxophone on the mix to his unsubtle playing style—to the point where, at one moment, he's said to have asked Jobim, in Portuguese, to “tell this gringo he's an idiot!” Which Jobim, turning to Getz, dutifully translated: “Stan, João is saying that his dream always was to record with you.”