Gilberto was born in Juazeiro, Bahia, and played guitar from a young age. It was an extended stay with singer Luís Telles in Pôrto Alegre in the late 1950s that saw Gilberto develop his unique whispery singing style and syncopated guitar technique. His debut album “Chega de Saudade” went on to shape the sound of bossa nova. Gilberto then spent some time in America and recorded “Getz/Gilberto” with saxophonist Stan Getz which popularised bossa nova around the world. On returning to Rio, Gilberto went on to record many albums with almost every Brazilian popular artist of note, including Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Gal Costa among many others. Gilberto spent the last decade of his life in reclusion, safe in the knowledge he had changed the course of Brazilian music.
