João Gilberto died on July 6, and now music lovers are experiencing another loss: Gilberto's albums have disappeared from Brazilian shelves.
Instead of a long-awaited avalanche of relaunches that often invade physical and virtual stores in the wake of the death of an idol, there is a great silence.
In fact, the three record companies that currently own the 17 official albums released by João Gilberto between 1959 and 2004 do not sell any of these CDs or vinyl in Brazil.
Universal, Warner, and Sony have given up releasing physical albums because of the changing market and also fear lawsuits from John's heirs, who are still fighting with Universal in court over record sales royalties since 1964 and also for moral damages.
The Polysom company, which only produces LP cassettes and discs, released last year the Warner-licensed "Amoroso" 180-gram vinyl. And Sony reports that it sells "I Know I'll Love You" from 1994, but only in digital format. In the iTunes store, it sells for $ 19.90.
They aren't the only ones. Universal, which owns 11 of 17 albums, reports nothing. "Due to the existence of the lawsuit of EMI [part of Universal] and João Gilberto, we will not speak about the requested." No João Gilberto Universal discs were found in digital or physical stores.
So old fans are damned if they want to hear the bossa nova creator innovations on their record players or CD players.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon