João Gilberto: "Chega de Saudade" reissued today in Japan

After the European CD release by the UK label Él on January 18, João Gilberto's landmark album "Chega de Saudade" is coming out today, February 20, in Japan. The CD is being reissued (with 12 bonus tracks) by the Tokyo-based label Solid Records, with the catalog number CDSOL7361, under an exclusive license agreement with Él, a division of the London-based Cherry Red Records Ltd., distributed in Europe by Pinnacle.

Prior to the Gilberto album, Él had released some interesting compilations featuring Luiz Bonfá, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Laurindo Almeida, Carmen Miranda and, in the jazz field, Gary McFarland, Mel Tormé, Yusef Lateef, Cal Tjader, Ahmad Jamal, Gabor Szabo and Grady Tate, amongst others. They had also reissued albums by Jobim ("Sinfonia do Rio de Janeiro"), Nara Leão ("Nara '67"), Rogério Duprat ("A Banda Tropicalista do Duprat") and Rita Lee ("Build Up"), among other rarities such as the soundtrack to Brigitte Bardot's debut film, "And God Created Woman," featuring Brazilian percussionist extraordinaire Jadir de Castro.

On its turn, the Solid label currently has nothing less than 540 CDs (and 5 DVDs) in-print on its catalog, mostly by singers like Peggy Lee, Blossom Dearie and Aretha Franklin.

For March 17, Solid is already announcing the Japanese release of a CD compilation titled "The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim", also licensed from the Él label. Its opening track is João Gilberto's legendary version of "Desafinado." For more details:
http://jazzstation-oblogdearnaldodesouteiros.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-jobim-compilation-released-today-in.html