João Gilberto, a Brazilian singer, guitarist and songwri-ter considered one of the fathers of the bossa nova genre that gained global popularity in the 1960, died on July 6th at 88 years old.
Although no official cause of his death was given, his son, João Marcelo said his father had been battling health issues.
Born in 1931 in Juazeiro in the northeastern state of Brazil known as Bahia, Gilberto seemed obsessed with music almost from the moment he emerged from the womb. His grandfather bought him his first guitar at age 14 (much to the dismay of João’s father). Within a year, the result of near constant practicing, he was the leader of a band made up of school friends. During this time Gilberto was absorbing the rhythmic subtlety of the Brazilian pop songs of the day, while also taking in the rich sounds of swing jazz, as well as the light opera singing of Jeanette MacDonald. At 18, Gilberto gave up on his small town life and headed to Bahia’s largest city, Salvador, to get a foothold in the music industry performing on live radio shows. Although he was given the opportunity to sing, instant stardom was not in the offing, but his brief appearances on the radio brought him to the attention of Antonio Maria, who wanted Gilberto to become the lead singer for the popular radio band Garotos da Lua (Boys From the Moon) and move to Rio de
Janeiro.
Gilberto stayed in the band only a year. He was fired after the rest of the group could take no more of his lackadaisical attitude. Gilberto was frequently late for rehearsals and performances, and in a move reminiscent of American pop star Sly Stone, would occasionally not show up at all. After his dismissal from the group Gilberto lived a seminomadic life. For years he had no fixed address, drifting from friend to friend and acquaintance to acquaintance, living off their kindness and rarely if ever contributing to the household expenses. Evidently Gilberto was such charming company that his emotional carelessness and fiscal apathy were never an issue — that or he had extremely patient and generous friends. It was during this underachieving bohemian period that Gilberto kept an extremely low profile. Instead of using his time with Garotos da Luna as a springboard 
for other recording and performing possibitities of marijuana, playing the odd club gig, and refusing work he considered beneath him (this included gigs at clubs where people talked during the performance). Although gifted with considerable talent as a singer and guitar player, it seemed as though Gilberto would fail to attain the success and notoriety he deserved if only due to apathy that verged on lethargy.
After nearly a decade of aimlessness Gilberto joined forces with singer Luis Telles, who encouraged Gilberto to leave Rio for a semibucolic life in the city of Pôrto Alegre. Telles made sure Gilberto would concentrate on his music. It turned out to be a successful, if expensive strategy. Within a few months Gilberto was the toast of Pôrto Alegre, the musician everyone wanted to see. It was also during this extended apprenticeship that Gilberto perfected his unique vocal style and guitar playing. So breathy and nasally it is almost defies description, in many ways he uses all the things one is taught not to do as a singer and has made them into an instantly recognizable style. Not even established crooners such as Bing 
Crosby and Perry Como sang more quietly or with less vibrato. This, along with his rhythmically idiosyncratic approach to playing the guitar — an intensely syncopated plucking of the strings that flowed with his singing — made for some exhilarating music, and by the time of his first record, Chega de Saudade (1959), Gilberto became widely known as the man who made bossa nova what it is.
True to form, however, Gilberto took the road less traveled, and after the success of his debut record and the two follow-up releases, he left Brazil to settle in the United States, where he lived until 1980. During this period he recorded some amazing records, working with saxophonist Stan Getz and recording music by older Brazilian songwriters such as Dorival Caymmi and Ary Barroso. He returned to Brazil in the early ‘80s and worked with virtually every big name in Brazilian pop, including Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethania, Gal Costa, and Chico Buarque. He never saw record sales like the afore-mentioned performers, but all of them regard him as a profound influence on their work. True to his image as enigmatic and eccentric, Gilberto lived a semireclusive lifestyle secure in the knowledge that, decades ago, he changed the course of Brazilian culture by making the bossa nova his music, as well as the music of Brazil.
Source: www.allmusic.com, artist biography by John Dougan