Thirteen years after recording the legendary ‘Getz/Gilberto’ album, Stan Getz revived to the notion of returning to the studio for another Brazilian project. By 1976 the musical landscape had endured the seismic shift brought on by Rock’s British Invasion – in fact, the Beatles (the one group that ended the above-named album’s 96 week run on the Billboard charts) were already consigned to history by the time Getz began laying down the tracks for this recording.
Fusion was on the rise, and the spotlight had shifted away from the old school style of straight ahead jazz to include new directions: jazz funk from Miles Davis, jazz fusion from Chick Corea and Return to Forever, and jazz pop from Grover Washington Jr. and Creed Taylor’s CTI roster.
Things had changed for Getz, too. He’d left producer Creed Taylor behind and began to trade labels, from Verve to Milestone and eventually to Columbia where he paired up with arguably one of the jazz world’s top producers of the day – Teo Macero – for this album.
Generally overlooked at the time of its release, ‘The Best of Two Worlds’ is a jazzy masterpiece that builds on Getz’s clutch of Bossa Nova recordings in the early 60s by reuniting the saxophonist with Brazilian vocalist João Gilberto and his wife singing in English and Portuguese with songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim. But that’s where the semblance ends.
In place of the intimate course set by ‘Getz/Gilberto’ producer Taylor, Teo Macero allows Getz to expand the jazzier side of his play. Instead of Astrud Gilberto (João’s first wife), we’re treated to Miucha (João’s second wife), whose U.S. debut on this recording introduced many of us to new subtleties of Brazilian charm. Her genuine vocal warmth contrasted nicely against the pop appeal of Astrud’s recordings, which had failed to keep pace with the changing musical scene.
Oscar Castro-Neves contributes the arrangements for each of these 10 tracks along with his rhythm guitar play, while American jazzers took hold of the rhythm section to provide another contrast to the ‘Getz/Gilberto’ album, where Brazilians were brought together to anchor the rhythm section behind the tenor sax play. Here the group is led by pianist Albert Daily, drummer Grady Tate and Steve Swallow’s bass. Airto Moreira returned from his participation on Getz’s 1972 album ‘Captain Marvel’ to anchor the percussion play.
Perhaps this album suffered by comparison due to the culture-changing success of ‘Getz/Gilberto’ a decade and a half earlier. Maybe the critics of the day expected a continuation instead of the ‘next installment’ – who knows what Downbeat was thinking at the time?
The best thing about ‘The Best of Two Worlds’ is that the musical relationship between Stan Getz and João Gilberto (which was forged in part by fire and steel in their first meetings in 1963) had matured by the time this album was recorded. Several of these songs came from Gilberto’s highly celebrated self-titled album from a few years earlier and receive similar treatment: ‘Falsa Bahiana’ swings Brazilian, allowing the saxophonist free reign to interpret Geraldo Pereira’s wonderful melody while ‘Izaura’ and Jobim’s ‘Águas De Março’ add English lyrics to balance the original Portuguese.
Other Jobim standards predominate the playlist here: There’s ‘Double Rainbow’ with Miucha singing in English, ‘Ligia’ features a wonderful duet between the two headliners, and the mistitled ballad ‘Retrato em Branco e Preto’, co-written by Miucha’s brother, Chico Buarque. Joao Gilberto’s solo guitar contributes a rare original with ‘João Marcello’ and Cole Porter’s ‘Just One Of Those Things’ wraps up the album.
What we like best about this CD is that this thoroughbred line-up delivers, and Stan Getz’s solos are worthy of comparison to any from ‘Getz/Gilberto’. But here again the differences can be appreciated – Macero’s direction opens up the saxophonist’s sound and ups the tempo for many of these tunes, which when driven along by drummers Tate and Hart, and Airto’s percussion, move the cadence from Bossa to Samba without missing a beat.
This would be Stan and João’s last studio date together. As masters of their individual domains, each brought their best qualities to this recording, making ‘The Best of Two Worlds’ a stellar choice for your collection.
