CD of the Day - "Astrud Gilberto & Walter Wanderley"

CD of the Day
Astrud Gilberto & Walter Wanderley: "A Certain Smile A Certain Sadness" (Verve) 2008
When releasing this album on CD in the USA for the first time, a decade ago, some crazy guy credited Joao Gilberto as the "guitarist" on the album. Something that led the CD to be deleted from catalog due to legal problems.
Now the album is back on the US market for the second time, thanks to the "Verve Originals" series. This second reissue, supervised by Harry Weinger, does no mention to Joao Gilberto, who didn't take part of the session.
But there's another big mistake: the song "Tristeza", composed by Haroldo Lobo & Niltinho, is credited to Edu Lobo! Both Niltinho and Norman Gimbel (who wrote the English lyrics sung by Astrud) are correctly credited as co-authors, though.
The digipack format includes the original liner notes by Chuck Briefer, but omitts the recording date of September 20, 1966.
Curiously too, the Walter Wanderley Trio is, actually, a quartet with Walter on Hammond organ, José Marino on electric bass, Claudio Slon on drums and Bobby Rosengarden on percussion.
Despite such bureaucratic problems, musically speaking the album is very interesting. The new digital remastering by engineer Kevin Reeves is excellent.
The repertoire goes far beyond the bossa nova boundaries, including delightful versions of Dorival Caymmi's "Você Já Foi à Bahia?" (mistitled "Você Já Foi Bahia"), Irving Berlin's "It's A Lovely Day Today", Tony Hatch's pop hit "Call Me" and Johnny Burke/Jimmy Van Heusen's "Here's That Rainy Day".
Another amazing surprise is César Portillo de a Luz's beautiful bolero "Tu Mi Delirio" (mistitled "Tu Meu Delirio"), on which Wanderley does a lovely solo on acoustic piano.
But the album highlight is Rubens Soares/David Nasser's samba "Nega do Cabelo Duro", a big hit in the Brazilian Carnival of 1942 when recorded by the Anjos do Inferno group. Propelled by an in-the-pocket up-tempo groove, Walter Wanderley plays a superb Hammond solo that deserves to be described and studied. It's one of his best performances ever documented on record.
The only bossa nova standard on the program is the Marcos & Paulo Sergio Valle's "Samba de Verão", retitled "So Nice" after the English lyrics (once again by Norman Gimbel) were added. We shall not forget that "Samba de Verão" had become a hit in the USA, one year earlier, in an instrumental version recorded by the same Walter Wanderley for his American debut album for Verve, "Rain Forest", also produced by Creed Taylor.