Exclusive Recording Session Inside Information

A note from Creed Taylor...
During the "Baltimore" recording sessions, Nina and I stayed at the Brussels' Hilton in Belgium. In order to reach the studio, we had to cross the Waterloo Bridge. I reminded Nina that this was the famous bridge where Napoleon "met his Waterloo." I felt an omen about the bridge that would bring us good luck at the recording sessions. In any case, we crossed this bridge five times. Each trip brought back some great Nina performances. The studio itself was an old stone barn that had been converted into a recording studio. Story was that Napoleon's troops had actually hidden out in this barn.

A note from Creed Taylor...
On the morning of Feb 13, 1962, Stan and I boarded the shuttle from LaGuardia, NY to Washington, DC. Upon arriving, we headed for The All Souls Unitarian Church, where we quickly set up to record on a 7&1/2 ips portable Ampex Tape Recorder. A couple of days before, Byrd had played these new Brazilian songs on the phone for Stan and myself. Stan had never seen, nor rehearsed, this material. Stan did roughly one run-through for each of the songs (Byrd's group was rehearsed). At that point, Jobim and Stan had yet to meet. The only thing that was "slightly out-of-tune," was the title of the song "Desafinado," which was soon to become a major world HIT! Loosely translated, "desafinado" means "slightly out-of-tune."