‘He made sure that she got nothing’: The sad story of Astrud Gilberto, the face of bossa nova

[Teasing the Korean]

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/astrud-gilberto-girl-from-ipanema-b2006879.html?fbclid=IwAR0ziBXDVQ4VWc8LGFc4_PQuaaLQhAU1dceivnRxfVQUgJlQpEu0uJXhP1s

 

[Dmitry]

I saw her perform in New York in 1998, and underwhelming is how I would describe it. 

I was under the impression that she left her guitarist husband for Getz, but it makes little difference to me. 

For someone to be fluent in multiple languages, and not knowing the meaning of the word "contract"...

[Teasing the Korean]

41 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

For someone to be fluent in multiple languages, and not knowing the meaning of the word "contract"...

Well, Gilberto's naïveté doesn't make Stan Getz any nicer of a human being.

[Dmitry]

8 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

Well, Gilberto's naïveté doesn't make Stan Getz any nicer of a human being.

We knew he was a monster, but the article also implies that she is a half-wit. 

[JSngry]

No, the article implies that she was a total naif.

And I can believe that, but only up to a point.

[felser]

I can believe it.  She was 19 when she married Gilberto, who was a decade older.  She was probably just pulled in by her husband into the recording studio, with it presented as a lark.  She was 22 at the time.  I suspect she would have left things like contracts in her husband's hands at that point.  For that matter, it may have just been considered sort of a package deal.  Not that it is excusable.  Not getting a contract with Taylor for the CTI album is another matter - she should certainly have known better by then.   I do have trouble with the concept that she was the only reason for Getz/Gilberto being a smash, given that the Getz/Byrd jazz samba album had previously gone to #1 on the pop album charts.  Seems like Chilton went over the top in his writing to try to reinforce his thesis of how mistreated and victimized she was.

Edited February 17, 2022 by felser

[clifford_thornton]

I'm sure she was mistreated and victimized and her personality may not have been up for competing with these men. It was also a different time. Bummer scene all around.

[JSngry]

7 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

 Bummer scene all around.

This.

[JSngry]

12 minutes ago, felser said:

 Not getting a contract with Taylor for the CTI album is another matter - she should certainly have known better by then, as sh.   I do have trouble with the concept that she was the only reason for Getz/Gilberto being a smash, given that the Getz/Byrd jazz samba album had previously gone to #1 on the pop album charts.  Seems like Chilton went over the top in his writing to try to reinforce his thesis of how mistreated and victimized she was.

this too.

Now...she was a woman, and a singer, and not a universally respected one at that (I love her and think she only got better with time, but mine is not a unanimously held opinion...all i can say is check out the live video from, whenever it was, late 20th Century?. STRONG!!!). So she was not going to have volunteers lining up to do right by her. That part I get, totally.

But...if you're going to deal with sharks, get one of your own, right? And turn into one yourself, just to have the skill set for if/when you need it.

Talk to Carla Bley, ok?

[Kevin Bresnahan]

29 minutes ago, felser said:

 I do have trouble with the concept that she was the only reason for Getz/Gilberto being a smash, given that the Getz/Byrd jazz samba album had previously gone to #1 on the pop album charts.

How many pop hits did Jazz Samba have? How many millions of dollars did it generate?

Gilberto's vocals pushed Getz's Samba craze into the mainstream. Getz stealing the credit from her is just who he was.

[JSngry]

28 minutes ago, bresna said:

How many pop hits did Jazz Samba have?

"Desafinado" was a Top 20 hit in 1962.

[jlhoots]

I hate it when I find out about this kind of stuff.

[T.D.]

Hunter S. Thompson:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”

[HutchFan]

1 hour ago, T.D. said:

Hunter S. Thompson:

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.”

That about sums it up, doesn't it.

 

[Dan Gould]

5 hours ago, felser said:

I can believe it.  She was 19 when she married Gilberto, who was a decade older.  She was probably just pulled in by her husband into the recording studio, with it presented as a lark.  She was 22 at the time.  I suspect she would have left things like contracts in her husband's hands at that point.  For that matter, it may have just been considered sort of a package deal.  Not that it is excusable.  Not getting a contract with Taylor for the CTI album is another matter - she should certainly have known better by then.   I do have trouble with the concept that she was the only reason for Getz/Gilberto being a smash, given that the Getz/Byrd jazz samba album had previously gone to #1 on the pop album charts.  Seems like Chilton went over the top in his writing to try to reinforce his thesis of how mistreated and victimized she was.

This.

She was kind of at the right place at the right/wrong time.

Hubby did nothing after the fact to try to get his wife what one might say she 'deserved'.  After she walked out of that studio and took the session fee payment, her rights more or less ended. 

Things that happened after that, yeah, naif or whatever, at some point you have to take responsibility.

Somehow and for some reason, I am kind of glad to know that Cybil Shepherd turned him down. But no one tell Chewy.

[JSngry]

Cybil Shepherd, by all accounts i've heard, don't take no shit unless she decides to do it.

 

[Dmitry]

This thread induced me to order the Getz bio from our library. I’m sure many of you have read it. 

[medjuck]

IIRC (and I often don't) Getz tried to screw Charlie Byrd out of royalties for Jazz Samba even though it was Byrd's idea. 

[AllenLowe]

Francis Davis spotted her in Philadelphia - well, I don't remember, but it might be 20 years ago. Apparently, from what I was told, she married a rich guy and recovered from all the Getz crap. And is supposedly living in Philly.

[felser]

3 hours ago, Dmitry said:

This thread induced me to order the Getz bio from our library. I’m sure many of you have read it. 

Yep, I read it in school:

[Kevin Bresnahan]

13 hours ago, AllenLowe said:

Francis Davis spotted her in Philadelphia - well, I don't remember, but it might be 20 years ago. Apparently, from what I was told, she married a rich guy and recovered from all the Getz crap. And is supposedly living in Philly.

But the article says, "Her second marriage, to Nicholas LaSorsa, ended more than four decades ago and she remained in Philadelphia living in privacy" and "The past few years, though, have reportedly been extremely difficult for Gilberto, who turns 82 in March 2022. She now lives in isolation, in her apartment overlooking a river, with the company of a cat and visits and calls from her children. Her voice is apparently still intact, though her spirit is broken."

That would seem to be the opposite of what Francis Davis reported?

[JSngry]

This one was from 2002 and did not suck.

[AllenLowe]

9 hours ago, bresna said:

But the article says, "Her second marriage, to Nicholas LaSorsa, ended more than four decades ago and she remained in Philadelphia living in privacy" and "The past few years, though, have reportedly been extremely difficult for Gilberto, who turns 82 in March 2022. She now lives in isolation, in her apartment overlooking a river, with the company of a cat and visits and calls from her children. Her voice is apparently still intact, though her spirit is broken."

That would seem to be the opposite of what Francis Davis reported?

well, not really. He only knew that he saw her, and reported what he had heard about her life.

[sgcim]

On 2/18/2022 at 10:02 PM, felser said:

Yep, I read it in school:

I posted here that they should make a movie about SG, and this book above supplies a perfect title. Gary Burton's autobio supplies a lot of info about the monster at this time, and talks about how Getz treated Astrud during their touring together.

Getz seemed to like reaming young musicians for everything he could get out of them. He had GB acting as his freaking tour manager at the time, taking care of everything, and GB happened to take a peek at how much Getz was getting paid for the gigs they did, and how much he was getting paid, and he found out Getz was making an astronomical amount, and he was getting paid 1/4 scale!

Add Astrud's name to the list of victims of Getz- Billy Bean, Gary Burton, Mel Lewis, Charlie Byrd Jimmy Raney, and who knows how many more...

[Gheorghe]

 

On 17.2.2022 at 4:38 PM, Dmitry said:

I saw her perform in New York in 1998, and underwhelming is how I would describe it. 

I was under the impression that she left her guitarist husband for Getz, but it makes little difference to me. 

For someone to be fluent in multiple languages, and not knowing the meaning of the word "contract"...

I saw her perform in 1985 at Hollabrunn Festival. On the first day the first show was Miles Davis, and the second show was Astrid Gilberto with her band which had a trombone player also......., and most of the members of the Miles Davis group stayed to listen to Astrud......really nice.

About Getz: I don´t know much about his personality, he didn´t perform so often in Austria. I saw him in 1981 and as much as I remember, Lou Levy was on piano, don´t remember who was on bass and drums, but they played with Art Pepper also. 
Maybe Getz and Pepper had similar personalities due to drug abuse. Maybe Getz didn´t pay Gilberto, because that was the junkie shit. Even Bird sometimes didn´t pay his fellow musicians or told them he would pay later.....
On the other hand, I saw Getz in an interview on TV in the 70 and he smiled and was very very nice and said interesting things about how so called Cool Jazz was the next thing after bop, it was a TV Series about the History of Jazz...., with interviews with surviving musicinas from the 40´s early 50´s, as Diz, Dex, Mingus, Getz, Kenton and so on....