Astrud Gilberto - "Now" 1972

Gracias a la recopilación de Your Heart Out de la que hablaba ayer he descubierto este lp de Astrud que no conocía. (me quedé en la la etapa Verve). Bonita versión de Jorge Ben y si, ella también sabe "sambear"

Killer work by Astrud Gilberto -- very different than her Verve sides of the 60s! The album was produced by Astrud, arranged by Deodato -- and has that wonderful warm full jazz feel of her classic album on CTI, but also a bit more like some of the funky work of Jorge Ben at the time -- choppy at the bottom, with a sound that's a bit samba, and a bit funky at times. Mike Longo and Deodato play keyboards on the session, giving it an electric groove that works perfectly with Astrud's soaring vocals -- and the whole album really holds together wonderfully! There's a nice bit of funk on the cut "Take it Easy My Brother Charlie" -- and other tracks include "Zigy Zigy Za", "Baiao", "Gingele", "Bridges", and "Where Have You Been?".
(DUSTY GROOVE)

Two years after her underrated album on CTI Records, Astrud Gilberto's follow-up is her first attempt to be taken seriously, not as a singer — she had that covered — but as a songwriter, at a time when simply singing standards was seen as lacking. Her four songs on this ten-song album show she has a way with a melody, though obviously influenced by countrymen Milton Nascimento and Jorge Ben, and her producer Eumir Deodato. "Gingele" and "Zigy Zigy Za" are exactly the kind of riff-based tropicalismo that Ben and company were making popular around this time. "Take It Easy My Brother Charlie" is probably her best song here (covered over 20 years later by Kahimi Karie), though it is Ben who often gets the writing credit (here it's listed as Gilberto and associate producer David Jordan). Very few concessions are made to America; only "Daybreak (Walking Out of Yesterday)" comes from the pop world, with instrumentation and sound coming from south of the equator.
(TED MILLS EN ALLMUSIC)