Creed Taylor Produced

CT 516 Astrud Gilberto – Solo El Fin (For All We Know)

Side A: Solo el Fin (For All We Know)
Side B: Solo el Fin (For All We Know)
Astrud Gilberto
Issues: CTI CT 516 [45]
Master No.: CT 516 B/CT 516 B
Recorded: January 13th, 1971
Released: March 1971

As the last of the 14 original 45rpm singles in Taylor’s Dozen, “Solo el Fin” was originally intended to be released in the US as a B-side. Doug Payne’s excellent CTI discography^[1]https://www.dougpayne.com/cti45502.htm lists a CT 516 release with an A-side of “Historia de Amor (Love Story) (3:30)” and B-side Solo el Fin (For All We Know) (3:15)” – It didn’t happen. Instead, only a green label, double sided promo pressing was released, except in Spain.

“Solo el Fin” is the same track length, same mix and edit as the album version. Both sides of the green US promo 45/single are the same.

The April 24th, 1971 issue of Downbeat magazine, in its Latin American “from Our Corner” section, it had “Grabo Astrud Gilberto la primera version en castellano de “For All We Know,” quien tuvo exit° interesante previamente con “Girl from Ipanema.” Al dorso trae este disco “Historia de Amor” (Love Story) con una version impresionante y diferente, todo ello en el sello CTI . . .”

Which translated seems to infer that “For All We Know” was the A-side in the America’s with “Love Story” (Historia de Amor) as the B-Side. It also says that “Astrud Gilberto recorded the first Spanish version of “For All We Know.””

“Gilberto with Turrentine”

As detailed in CT 512 Creed essentially missed the boat for a vocal version of the theme from “Love Story”. It’s my contention that by the end of April, CTI had also realized that the album “Gilberto with Turrentine”^[2]https://www.discogs.com/master/111010-Gilberto-With-Turrentine-Gilberto-With-Turrentine was neither fish nor fowl.

The final recording session had been April 6th, 1971^[3]https://www.dougpayne.com/ctid7072.htm#gilberto – the album wasn’t released until mid-June 1971. The album first entered the Record World Jazz top-20 albums on June 26th at #14, it hovered around the same spot for 10-weeks. Interestingly Downbeat magazine didn’t even get around to reviewing it until November 1971.

Every element of the production is in such fruitful, considered balance, that it’s quite easy to overlook the fact that it’s nominally Mrs. Gilberto’s album. So much care has been lavished upon every aspect of the production—choice of songs, Deodato’s incandescent arrangements, the solo statements by Turrentine and others, the lustrous clarity of the recording and sound mix that her contributions to the proceedings seem no more than just another element in a musical whole- the effectiveness of which derives from its totality rather than from the strength or singularity or any one of its components.

All of which means that had she been replaced by any other competent singer that result would doubtless have been the same. And much the same is true of Turrentine, who skates blithely across the music whenever it’s his turn to be up front. The only soloist who impresses with any display of individuality is guitarist Mann, who seems to have effected a very attractive fusion of jazz and rock elements. It would be instructive to hear him at greater length in a more challenging context.

It’s pointless to judge this type of music by jazz standards; despite its jazz orientation and its use of certain expressive means usually associated with jazz, its ends are quite different. Suffice it to say that this is a very charming program of superior romantic music carried forth with taste, creativity and restraint, and thus quite similar to several albums of like Taylor-produced music by Walter Wanderley, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Paul Desmond, most of which I find more incisive than this and for which I would reserve five-star ratings. — Welding

Downbeat – November 25th, 1971 review – p25

Given everything that was going on at CTI in 1971, Creed, Vic Chirumbolo and marketing decided to punt the double sided promo out to radio DJ’s and Jukebox distributors and move on.

That was the end of the Creed Taylor / Astrud Gilberto recordings, Astrud moved on as well. According to a Martin Chilton article in the Guardian newspaper in 2022, while the Taylor/Getz/Gilberto triumvirate had been record breaking and Grammy winning, it wasn’t kind to Astrud^[4]https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/astrud-gilberto-girl-from-ipanema-b2006879.html.

At some point I’ll return to Astrud Gilberto and the “Girl From Ipanema”. For now, here is one of Astrud’s next tracks, released in September 1971 on CTI in Italy and Japan, but nothing to do with Creed or the US CTI Records. It’s another record you’ve likely never heard. The back story to this release is in an earlier post, OTD: RIP Ennio Morricone. A complete, continuous mix of Taylors Dozen will be added to the main entry, here.

CT 512 Astrud Gileberto (Where Do I Begin) Love Story  << | Taylor’s Dozen

Updates: