Getz/Gilberto

After making Jazz Samba with guitarist Charlie Byrd and his group in 1962, followed by Jazz Samba Encore! with Luiz Bonfá and Big Band Bossa Nova with arranger Gary McFarland, tenor giant Stan Getz partnered with the Brazilian masters João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim for a bewitching set that took Album of the Year and four other Grammy categories in 1965. A go-to example of commercially successful jazz in the post-swing, post-bebop era, Getz/Gilberto was one of Creed Taylor’s classic Verve productions, with a focus on Jobim’s indelible tunes (save for “Doralice” by Dorival Caymmi and “Para Machuchar Meu Coração” by Ary Barroso). Gilberto’s lilting Portuguese and gently propulsive nylon-string guitar—plus guest Astrud Gilberto’s haunting appearances, in English, on the hits “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars)”—continue to sweep us away, but it’s the balance between that and Getz’s cut-like-a-knife tenor choruses that makes Getz/Gilberto such a rare beauty.