Our Rendition of The Girl From Ipanema

I mostly play as OMB or sometimes a dou with my wife. Once in a blue moon we get to add a few other musicians which I love to do. My wife is on vocals, my best friend is one Latin percussion/vocals, my long term colleague is on alto sax, and a guy I just met is on guitar. In fact that we his first time to play this tune he said. Anyways, we got set up early at a house party and did a sound check.

I hope you enjoy. Happy Fathers Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDHyWgVMGqk

Nice Paul!!

Cool... Real percussion and guitar fix what is often the weakest thing about arrangers!

Paul ... LOVE IT !!! ... great sounding group ... ... just strange that the guitar player never played the tune before ... ??? ...any more vids from that party? ...
and they do house parties BIG in your neck of the woods, eh ?!? ...

Nice work Paul! The bossas are may favorite, especially when sung in the original language. Kudos to your wife! Your piano playing was also spot on.

Joe

Thanks for the comments and to all those that listened to my first ever video I've put on the internet.

Diki- yes I love to use "real" players whenever I can. We've used all sorts of combinations: Drumset, bass, vibes,trombone, violin... I'm surprised more people don't intigrate live players with an arranger.

Tony- I think the guitar player has probably heard the tune but said he never played it on a gig... he is a classical guitarist and he writes his own nuevo flamenco
music. He did fine as long as he had a chart. And yes we have lots more videos... I just need to learn about video editing.

Joe, thanks for the kind words. My wife is Mexican but she enjoys singing in Portgues too. She's starting to sing a bit in English as well.

Paul, as much as I love bossas, for some strange reason, my audiences rarely dance to them. They'll cha cha, rumba, samba, etc..., but for some reason they just don't bossa. I loved your arrangement and your wife is an excellent singer.

Thanks for posting this,

Gary

agree with Gary I use Bossa as a background for cocktail parties, intimate gatherings, dinner etc,...

Nice mate! I like it

Thanks Brian. It great to be able to play with other guys. The arranger KB gives us lots of flexibility. In this case, I just muted the guitar track on the T2 and let the guitar player do his thing.

It was recorded with a Zoom Q2HD, with the built in mic. I put two Bose Compacts facing the band and used a Roland BA 330 next to the percussionist. The room had really good acoustics. I'm good friends with the owner of the house and he said we can record thier anytime, so we're planing to do so again soon...

yeah Gary, same thing here. We never really do Bossa Nova if we're playing for dancer. We just play it for background music. Didn't people dance to it back in the day?

One thing you might consider doing is taking one of the many great bossa nova songs and playing as a cha-cha-cha or other Latin style.

Wave sounds great as a cha-cah, Black Orfeus as a Cuban son, Quiet Night (Corcovado) as a rumba.

I know I am guilty of doing this myself but it came to life as I watched the video.
The singer moved and the keyboard never moved. In watching I realized how important it is for a keyboard to have a touch of showmanship.

The music saw done very well, good singing -- good sounds from the keyboard.

John C.

Paul:

Very Nice! I am addicted to Bossas and have an extensive CD collection of Brazilian music. This was a very enjoyable rendition and it was recorded very well also. You got the tempo just right.

Joe

This is Not NICE Its SUPERB Awesome Performance NOW thats music
I LOVE IT
Men i can listen to this for hours !!

Have a nice week
Greetz Rico

Great Paul! I still have recordings of you and your wife on my Audya.
DonM

Hi John, your point on showman is well taken. That's something I need to work on...But it sure makes me apreciate my wife that much more. What would I do without her?

Hi Joe, I'm with you on the bossa nova music. If I had to choose just one style of music to play and listen to, it would have to be bossa nova.

Rico, thanks for your kind words. I need to study your videos more to get some ideas for showmenship. You always look to relaxed and your having a good time too!

Don, me and my wife still get a laugh when we talk about the time that we sat in on your gig in Sherveport... manly due to my inabilty to opperate the Audya... Anyways, we'd love to come by again. Let me know if you any public gigs coming up as we are off for summer vacation and need a good excuse for a road trip.

"when sung in the original language"

not exactly, that's more spanish than Portuguese/Brasilian

but i liked it, and thanks for sharing

montunoman, you guys may wanna up the key a bit for her, 1 or 1 1/2 steps up
i think it would have a bit more impact

just my $0.02

Love Bossa done well. This was...


R.

Thanks Russ. Although the fellow that played the guitar did a fine job, it would have been a blast to have you play with us. I know you can out play us but we'd have fun.

Lee zone, thanks for the tip on the key. We'll give it a try. As for the Portuguese, we are all Spanish speakers that really dig Brazilian music and the Portuguese language. It was a sincere attempt, and our apologies if we butcherd your lovely language.

it sounds great, just constructive criticism

Muito obrigado meu amigo