MARIA QUIET - ASTRUD GILBERTO

This is for those folks, who still think that Ritchie Blackmore's guitar riff from «Smoke On The Water» was his own invention - it certainly wasn't! Although it might seem to be quite some way from bossa nova to rock . . . there you have it: For her 1966 album «Look To The Rainbow» beautiful Astrud Gilberto had recorded this little bossa lament by Brazilian composer and singer Carlos Lyra. Coincidence? Naaa. Blackmore himself, though, claimed that Beethoven's «Symphony No. 5» had «inspired» (!) him to that riff - by using the notes and turning 'em around a bit. Did he himself actually believe his own words? I'll be damned, if he hadn't been aware of Gilberto's recording, which was arranged and conducted by Gil Evans! «When I hear Astrud, jasmine fills the air» (Donovan - «Joe Bean's Theme», 1970). Let's enjoy some jasmine in the air with this one!