Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars

Corcovado – Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto
from the album Getz/Gilberto #2 – Verve – 1964.

Corcovado – Everything But The Girl
from the compilation Red Hot + Rio – Antilles/Verve – 1996.

Corcovado (DJ Marky & XRS Remix) – Everything But The Girl
from 12” – white label – also available on Sambass II (Cuadra) 2004.

My first chance to spin in public came in graduate school scant months after I first got the itch and start buying records. I would play jazz and some soul at this coffee shop in upstate New York for 2-3 hours every Tuesday night. The patrons hated me (or at least a good number of them did) and always asked me to turn the music down because they were studying. Why they were studying in a heavily trafficked café instead of the library or their room I’ll never understand, but they were not to be toyed with. However the manager liked what I played and said, succinctly, “Screw ‘em. Turn it up every time they bitch.” What a boss. However, no matter how bleak the organic chemistry vs. Ornette Coleman divide got I could always win the crowd by playing some of the tracks Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto collaborated on, especially if Joao’s wife Astrud was featured on vocals. It is one of those incomprehensible things that these cats together made music that is genetically encoded to be loved by 100% of humanity (meaning dogs are 98% likely to love it as well).

The Getz/Gilbert album and the live concert recreating the same (Getz/Gilberto #2 from Oct. 9, 1964) are very well known, so I won’t dwell on them further than saying if you don’t own these albums, start clicking add to cart at your favorite music shop now. Absolutely essential, beautiful stuff. I’ve included my favorite track from the live version along with two stellar remixes of the same.

From the Red Hot + Rio compilation, which was made money for the fight against AIDS proliferation in the mid-90s, Everything But The Girl did a pop-drum & bass mix that keeps the vocals very similar to the original while punching up some decidedly decent beats. The Red Hot + Rio album featured modern producers taking a stab classic Brazilian tracks and some new productions as well. While the album as a whole is a mixed bag of hits and misses, this track really works while straddling the mainstream-adventurous fence.

DJ Marky and XRS offer a harder and more proper d&b remix of EBTG’s remix I like much better for the dancefloor. Big bump bass and some very nice skittery drums without ever getting too agro. Just what I would expect from DJ Marky, who always brings it for Brazilian jungle.