Samba: A Beat for Your Grown-up Self

I was 11 when Stan Getz had his inescapable hit with "The Girl from Ipanema." Brilliant as I now understand it to be, for my younger self it was just more fluff washing ashore on the tide that brought the Tijuana Brass.  Get me the Dave Clark Five, quick. 

So it was years before I gave a proper listen to Bossa Nova, to Jobim's Wave, Getz and Joa Gilberto's  classic, eponymous collaboration, Davis' gorgeous Quiet Nights, and Ellis & Tom (where you can find Jobim's true sound). By then my British Invasion jets had long cooled and my ears were better trained.  I was old enough to hear the "new beat" that always animated this music and patient enough to listen to lyrics in a language unknown to me.

Which brings me to Gilberto Gil.  A couple of his classic '60's hits turned up on David Byrne's Tropicalia collection in the '80's and piqued my interest, especially "Andar Com Fé." 

But that disc sent me into the arms of Caetano Veloso and Milton Nascimento, which proved short lived infatuations. Gil was still out here making music and The Times regularly noted his NY appearances and the new discs they promoted.  It's happened again.  

At 72,  Gil (once Brazil's Minister of Culture) has a transporting new collection of sambas, titled plainly enough Gilbertos Samba, including some classics you'll know the sound of, if not their names.  Here are 12 tracks that do what Bossa Nova sambas do -- break your heart (in the best way) with strummed guitars, brushed drums and 2/4 time. 

These songs, especially "Desafinado" and "Desde Que o Samba É Samba," make me keep wondering -- is it too late to learn Portuguese?