1962 Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd – Desafinado

1962 Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd – Desafinado

Beginning in the early 1900s, the musical form known as the samba grew in popularity in Brazil. In the late fifties and early sixties, a derivative form of samba came to be referred to as Bossa Nova.

Stan Getz played saxophone with a long list of bands in the forties, including Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Woody Herman. In 1953, he helped to form the Dizzy Gillespie/Stan Getz Sextet. He moved to Copenhagen in 1958, and then returned to the US and recorded a solo jazz album in 1961.

Charlie Byrd to play the acoustic steel guitar from his father. During the late fifties, he played classical guitar and jazz at the Washington D.C. club Showboat. His friend Felix Grant, a local radio host, had spent some time in Brazil in 1960 and introduced Charlie to some of the music he heard there.

Charlie had the opportunity to hear the new style of samba music when he went on a diplomatic tour of South America in 1961. When he returned to the US, he invited Stan to listen to some recordings by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim. Charlie and Stan decided to record an album of similar Bossa Nova songs. Charlie recruited Creed Taylor at Verve Records to produce an album for them.

The album became Jazz Samba and the lead song on the album was an instrumental cover of a song created by Antônio. The original version included Portuguese lyrics written by Newton Mendonça, but the cover version by Charlie and Stan was an instrumental. They edited down the nearly six minute album version and released the shortened version as a single.

The single peaked at #15 on the Hot 100 and #4 on the Adult Contemporary (AC) chart in 1962. Its success helped pave the way for Bossa Nova records in the US.

Charlie recorded dozens of albums for Riverside and Columbia Records and played at the Showboat II club in Maryland. He played at the King of France Tavern nightclub from 1973 until his death in 1999.

Stan recorded several more Bossa Nova albums in the next few years. He recorded the 1963 album Getz/Gilberto with Antônio and João and his wife, Astrud Gilberto. That album contained one of the most successful Bossa Nova singles. Antônio wrote The Girl From Ipanema, which featured vocals by Astrud. The single peaked at #5 on the Hot 100 and topped the AC chart in 1964.