Guitar, Vocals, Composition | 1931-2019

Known as "O Mito" (The Myth) in Brazil, João Gilberto do Prado Pereira de Oliveira created bossa nova in the late 1950s, revolutionising Brazilian music. In 1955, living in solitude at his sister's home, he developed a radically minimalist guitar technique distilling Brazil's complex percussion into softly percussive fingerpicking patterns. Combined with intimate, breathy vocals without vibrato, this approach created an entirely new sound when paired with Antonio Carlos Jobim's harmonies. His 1958 recording of "Chega de Saudade" launched bossa nova, followed by three seminal albums from 1959-1961.

The 1963 Getz/Gilberto with Stan Getz, featuring wife Astrud on "The Girl from Ipanema", won the 1965 Grammy for Album of the Year, the first jazz record to receive this honour. Known for extreme perfectionism, he once demanded 28 takes to perfect a vowel sound. His influence reached Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and daughter Bebel Gilberto. The minimalist João voz e violão (2000), featuring only voice and guitar, won the Grammy for Best World Music Album in 2001. Miles Davis said Gilberto "would sound good reading a newspaper". He died in Rio de Janeiro in 2019 aged 88.