Don’t let it keep you from adding Amoroso to your collection. ![]() This awkward and inelegant pairing does nothing to detract from the romantic beauty of the first eight tracks. Lately Amoroso has been packaged as a ‘2-fer’ with and album titled ‘Brasil’, featuring Gilberto with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethania. How important is Amoroso by Joao Gilberto in the lexicon of Brazilian music? Singer Rosa Passos planned her first major label release for the US completely around it, with some clever word play to create a title purely reflective of the original: ‘Amorosa.’ Jobim’s ‘Caminhos Cruzados’ is given a similar ‘standard setting’ performance. Latin America’s standard ‘Besame Mucho’ has been recorded in Spanish, Italian and even French, but rarely with as much emotion as it receives here. Take your pick: ‘Wave’, with its enveloping introduction, ‘Tin Tin Por Tin Tin’ featuring Gilberto’s vocal percussion lead in. Its here that the delicate nature of Ogerman’s own considerable talent comes through.Įach of these eight songs on Amoroso by Joao Gilberto create a perfect marriage between these two dominant musical forces of nature. These eight tracks find Gilberto’s soft tenor (I describe it as ‘a voice that can whisper through walls’) framed by the elegant string arrangements of Claus Ogerman in a session that many critics point to as one of the German-born arranger’s finest moments.Īnd while Gilberto’s many live solo recordings proved that his voice and guitar are all that is needed to enjoy his artistry, it can be said that talent on this scale represents a great challenge: How to properly write string passages without competing with the singer’s one-of-a-kind sound. That’s why Amoroso by Joao Gilberto has been tabbed as an ‘essential’ album for fans of Brazilian music by our editors at This period of his studio career revealed itself all too briefly before it disappeared, only to resurface a final time for his self-titled ‘João’ CD years later in 1991. His careful choices regarding recording projects always resulted in a superb selection of songs – some chestnuts, some breaking new ground. His unique voice and mastery of Bossa’s phrasing and guitar play was celebrated worldwide and imitated by many. Gilberto’s unique concept of recreating a complete rhythm section using only his guitar was msucial genius, earning him the title of ‘Father of Bossa Nova’ by virtue of his 1957 recording of ‘Chega de Saudade’. With string arrangements by Claus Ogerman (Antonio Carlos Jobim’s favorite arranger) and Johnny Mandell (Frank Sinatra’s favorite arranger) this album stands today as one of the best collections of Joao Gilberto’s recordings at the height of his career.īy the mid 1970’s Gilberto had found his musical ‘home’ after stints in New York, Paris and Mexico City. One Track Mind: Could this be Joao Gilberto’s Greatest Album? We say…Īmoroso by Joao Gilberto was released on November 26th, 1977.
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