Two Drunk Men Were Leering at a Teenager at a Beachside Bar in Rio . . .

Stop Me If You've Heard This One.

Who was going to sing it? Getz was no singer and Gilberto didn’t know English. In fact, the only one in the room who could sing in English was Gilberto’s 22-year wife Astrud, hanging around waiting to go to dinner. Yeah, she had a pretty voice but it was like a whisper . . .

In the late 1950s and early 1960s American jazz musicians discovered the samba, Brazil’s complex, indigenous music. Saxophonist Stan Getz was one of the first to travel there, finding a thriving and welcoming musical scene.

Getz began working with composer, singer, and guitarist Joao Gilberto. They softened the hard samba rhythms and superimposed American jazz song forms, creating a Brazilian “new wave” (“bossa nova”) sound. They got the sound they wanted but needed to add vocals in order to appeal to an international audience.