Silver Collection: The Astrud Gilberto Album CD

With her simultaneously childlike and alluring voice and vibrato-less "desafinado" (deliberately slightly off-pitch) singing style, Gilberto is one of the most unique and unforgettable singers in the history of jazz. Split evenly between Portuguese-language sambas, many written by the great Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, and bossa nova-style interpretations of such jazz standards and pop tunes as "The Shadow Of Your Smile" and "Dreamer," all 25 tracks on this hour-long CD are '60s jazz-pop classics.

THE SILVER COLLECTION, released in Germany in the mid-'80s, may be the first of the many CD compilations of the '60s work of Brazilian bossa nova song stylist Astrud Gilberto. It is still one of the best. While the collection does not include her classic first recording with the Stan Getz Quartet, "The Girl From Ipanema"-the song that introduced bossa nova to a worldwide audience-THE SILVER COLLECTION is an excellent introduction to the magic of Astrud Gilberto.

Personnel includes: Astrud Gilberto (vocals); Marty Paich, Don Sebesky, Joao Donato, Claus Ogerman, Gil Evans (arranger).

Award Winner