- He's a musician.
- Father, with Miúcha, of Bebel Gilberto (b.1966).
- Father, with Astrud Gilberto, of a boy named João Marcelo Gilberto (born in 1960).
- Father, with Cláudia Faissol, of a girl named Luísa Carolina, born in 2004.
- In 1964, he collaborated with American saxophone player Stan Getz. Their album, "Getz/Gilberto", sold millions of copies and won international plaudits, including a US Grammy for Album of the Year.
- His 1958 recording of "Chega de Saudade," a song written by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, became an international hit and launched the bossa nova movement. The song also lent its name to Gilberto's debut album, released in 1959.
- In 2001, Gilberto won the Grammy for the Best World Music Album category in the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards for his work in the album João Voz e Violão.
- He lived in his native city Juazeiro until 1942, when he began to study in Aracaju, Sergipe, returning to Juazeiro in 1946.
- Around the world, he was often called "father of bossa nova"; in his native Brazil, he was referred to as "O Mito" ("The Legend").
- He was a Brazilian guitarist, singer, and composer who was a pioneer of the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s.
- Despite his high acoustic standards, he skipped a contractually required sound check prior to a July 2003 performance at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles. This negligence (and the ensuing sound fiasco) prompted the audience to stream from the venue before the concert ended.
- In the 1960s Brazilian singles evolved to the "double compact" format, and Gilberto released some EPs in this new format, which carried four songs on a 45-rpm record.
- He was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame in 2002.
- Gilberto's first recordings were released in Brazil as two-song, 78-rpm singles between 1951 and 1959.
- In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Gilberto at number 81 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
- Gilberto was known for his demanding acoustic and noise-control standards. During a recording session of the song "Rosa Morena", he insisted on 28 takes to get the pronunciation of the o in "Rosa" just right.
- Gilberto moved to Salvador, Bahia, in 1947. During his three years in the city, he dropped out of his studies to dedicate himself exclusively to music and at the age of 18 began his artistic career as a crooner at the Rádio Sociedade da Bahia.
- Leonardo Rocha, in his obituary for the BBC, states that Gilberto's music describes "a period of huge optimism in Brazil".
- In 1997, Gilberto sued record label EMI over their reissue of several of his early works, which he contended had been poorly remastered. According to The New York Times, "A statement by his lawyer at the time declared that the reissues contained sound effects that 'did not pertain to the original recordings, banalizing the work of a great artist." Following the incident, EMI ceased production of the albums in question.
- His "unique" acoustic guitar style involves a syncopated rhythm of plucked chords, with chord progressions rooted in the jazz tradition. His vocal style has been described as "laid-back and understated".
- On 17 May 2017, Gilberto received an honorary doctorate in music from Columbia University but did not attend the commencement ceremony.
- In September 2003, Gilberto performed four shows in Japan. His performance at the Tokyo International Forum on 12 September was recorded for a live album titled In Tokyo which was released in 2004.
- In 1963, Gilberto collaborated with American jazz musician Stan Getz on the album Getz/Gilberto which was released the following year. Jobim played the piano for the album while Gilberto's then-wife Astrud performed the vocals in English while he sang in Portuguese. Although Astrud Gilberto was only in the recording studio to be with her husband, João Gilberto requested her to sing on several of the tracks as he could not sing in English. This resulted with a duet between the two on the track "The Girl from Ipanema" which became a major hit from the album. At the 7th Annual Grammy Awards, Getz/Gilberto won three awards including Album of the Year, which marked the first time a jazz album received the accolade.
- In 1956, he returned to Rio and struck up old acquaintances, most significantly with Antônio Carlos Jobim, who was by then working as a composer, producer and arranger with Odeon Records. Jobim was impressed with Gilberto's new style of guitar playing and set about finding a suitable song to pitch the style to Odeon management.
- He formed his first band in his native Juazeiro, called "Enamorados do Ritmo".
- At the age of 14, Gilberto got his first guitar from his grandfather despite disapproval from Gilberto's father.
- Gilberto lived alone from around 2009. His final years were marked by money problems as well as declining health. In 2011, he was sued and evicted from an apartment in Leblon by his landlord, Countess Georgina Brandolini d'Adda.
- In 2001, Gilberto won the Grammy for the Best World Music Album category in the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards for his work in the album João Voz e Violão. A year later, he was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fam.
- In September 2003, Gilberto performed four shows in Japan.
- Gilberto's style combines traditional elements of samba with more contemporary jazz.
- Gilberto first married the singer Astrud Weinert, with whom he collaborated on the hit recording of "The Girl from Ipanema".
- It was reported in December 2017 that his daughter Bebel was seeking control of his financial affairs because of his declining mental state and increasing indebtedness.
- Writing in The Guardian after his death, Dom Phillips described Gilberto as ".. one of the country's greatest musicians and composers, a reclusive genius in a nation of extroverts whose work recalled happier, more optimistic times for a deeply divided nation.".
- With the introduction of the microphone and the amplifier in Brazil, Gilberto realized that the sound source did not need to be emitted intensely, regarding the voice and instrument, which favored subtle and internalized interpretations. On the other hand, at the time of the first "bossa nova" recordings, Brazil still did not have high fidelity recording equipment capable of reproducing more complex sonorities. Due to that, Gilberto and Tom Jobim, Gilberto's first arranger, elaborated complex harmonies under the influence of American music, and at the same time they simplified the general sound, because of the equipment limitation.
- In The Washington Post pop critic Chris Richards said, "His voice was one of the most intimate sounds of the 20th century - more melodic than a sigh, more rhythmic than chitchat, only just barely. Every syllable that appeared on his lips carried an air of effortlessness, but Gilberto had worked hard to locate that sacred place where a human breath becomes music.".
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content