It was a worldwide hit and won the 1965 Grammy for record of the year. The album's breakout hit featured Gilberto's then-wife Astrud on a sultry vocal of the song 'Garota de Ipanema (Girl From Ipanema).' JoГЈo sang the lyrics in Portuguese, Astrud repeated them in English and Getz added an now-iconic tenor sax solo. The resulting album, Getz/Gilberto, featured compositions by the Jobim/de Moraes writing team, many of which became jazz standards over the decades, including 'Corcovado,' 'Desafinado' and 'Doralice.' The next year, Getz invited Gilberto to record together. Their 1962 album Jazz Samba was an immediate success in the US. State Department had organized one of its goodwill musical ambassador tours to Rio and jazz guitarist Charlie Byrd caught some of the music and took the style back home, where he shared it with jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. Over three years Gilberto recorded three albums that were the blueprints for a musical revolution: Chega de Saudade (Odeon, 1959), O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor (Odeon, 1960), and JoГЈo Gilberto (Odeon, 1961). 'Several others tried to imitate him, with no success.' 'His uncanny ability to syncopate his vocal delivery, while keeping a simple groove was his trademark sound,' Neto wrote to NPR from his home in California. Gilberto's version became a hit in Rio and internationally, and launched the bossa nova movement.Д«razilian born pianist Jovino Santos Neto described the influence Gilberto's technique had on the music of that era as profound. In 1958 Jobim and de Moraes had collaborated on a recording of the song 'Chege de Saudade' by another vocalist, but the song didn't become a phenomenon until Gilberto's version, with his softly percussive finger picking technique on an acoustic guitar and breathy vocals that matched the soft curves of the music. The breakthrough came just before the end of the decade.

Rio de Janeiro was ground zero of the country's cultural explosion Gilberto, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes were the key architects of a culture shift that forever changed their country's musical point of reference. Bossa nova's sophisticated sound became popular with a new moneyed class eager to move away from the more traditional samba sound of explosive drums and group singing. Gilberto's 'Bim-Bom,' often named as the first bossa nova song, came from that period, and soon thereafter, the style began to sweep Rio's cafe's and bars.

In the mid-1950s, Brazil was in the midst of a post-WWII modernization inspired by a new president who wished to move the country out of third world economic status. Gilberto's intimate and nuanced style of guitar playing and singing, eventually central to the bossa nova sound, were reportedly developed in 1955 when he sequestered himself inside of a bathroom at his sister's house so as not to disturb her family and to take advantage of the acoustics provided by the bathroom tiles. This mid-20th century musical gift to the world drew on Brazil's African-influenced samba tradition, but was performed without the usual battery of drums and rhythm instruments, and at much lower volumes.

JoГЈo Gilberto is credited by some with writing the first bossa nova, or new beat. JoГЈo Marcelo Gilberto wrote that his father, who was 88 years old, died following an undisclosed illness. JoГЈo Gilberto, one of the principal architects of the Brazilian musical style bossa nova, has died at his home in Rio de Janeiro, according to a Facebook post by his son. JoГЈo Gilberto, Master Of Bossa Nova, Dies At 88 Photo by Michael Ochs Archives Getty Images

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