Astrud
Funny how music transcends time and place.
I remember the night it came to life for me.
The lights were dimmed, the dark brimming.
We made our way over to the leather sofa.
I knew he’d be there to hold me. And before I could blink, there he was.
And there I was, in the weight of his arms.
The kitchen fell quiet. Life outside the windows seemed to have stopped. Nothing to distract us. Just the electric attention of one other.
And there was the music,
Corcovado “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars”
With that chilling opening line in the unassuming feminine mystique:
Quiet nights of quiet stars
Quiet chords from my guitar
Floating on the silence that surrounds us
Quiet thoughts and quiet dreams
Quiet walks by quiet streams
And a window that looks out on Corcovado
Oh, how lovely
Without knowing the rest of the Portuguese lyrics, we were carried away in our thoughts across Corcovado.
Bossa Nova.
Not many know this, but Astrud Gilberto, the female vocalist on the track, was never meant to be.
Married to the famous Brazilian jazz artist, Joao Gilberto, she went to the New York studio that spring day in 1963 as a supportive wife and translator to her husband.
But as fate would have it, or rather her quiet dreams—while creating this would-be American Bossa Nova album, Joao, saxophonist Stan Getz, and producer Creed Taylor needed some verses sung in English.
And no one could speak it better than Astrud.
At first, she’d sing “The Girl from Ipanema,” then there was, of course, “Corcovado.”
The rest was history.
Her pure, breathy, and even hesitant style became ubiquitous to the genre itself, launching Getz/Gilberto to international acclaim—winning record and album of the year, even beating that of the Beatles.
Still, while no one could have embodied the essence of Bossa Nova or “The Girl from Ipanema” like she did, when approached by The Inquirerin 1989, she responded:
“I made that record in the capacity of the wife who sings.”
What’s more, with the album’s massive success, she was only paid $120 and never properly credited.
But the unassuming girl from Bahia could not help but make the world fall in love.
After weathering that storm, she would go on to international stages, releasing albums herself, and living on her own terms in America.
And true to character, a rather quiet existence.
Those two songs were all she contributed to that album, but her impact lived well beyond.
She made Bossa Nova what it became on a global scale.
And she made our night what it was, under the stars.
A moment that would last a lifetime with her unassuming gentleness, delicacy, and grace.
She captured the essence of something that only she could, something that was very much alive…
A quiet longing.
And this very year that I sat in that living room, in love, she passed.
I once more enjoyed her presence on these quiet nights of quiet stars.
With the song that has now transcended time and place.
Astrud.