The Legendary Joćo Gilberto
Artist: Joćo Gilberto

It is difficult to overstate or overhype the importance of this CD, for it exhaustively documents the starting point of bossa nova in Brazil prior to the global craze. The building blocks are solidly in place -- Joao Gilberto's highly distinctive, pioneering acoustic guitar rhythms, his precisely enunciated vocals (recorded not too closely for a... Read More

Wave: Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim

The sequel to the popular The Girl from Ipanema anthology basically reshuffles the deck, duplicating nine of the earlier CD's songs and adding six new ones, using mostly the same performers with a few additions. The new wrinkle is that the artists perform different tunes, a game that one imagines could be continued indefinitely on future issues.... Read More

Antonio Carlos Jobim and Friends
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim

Jobim made his last Brazilian concert appearance -- and the penultimate one of his life -- at this warm, star-studded affair in which American jazz musicians jetted down to the Free Jazz Festival in Sao Paulo to pay effusive homage. The miracle is how easily the jazzers were able to capture the yearning essence of Jobim's idiom without really... Read More

The Man from Ipanema
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Community Score: 8.00

Issued nearly a year after Jobim's death, this three-CD set is ground zero, the place to start if you don't have any Jobim in your collection or for anyone who wants a single package of his multifaceted art. The set encompasses not only Jobim's own sporadic work for Verve from 1963 until his final 1994 Carnegie Hall concert and the two A&M... Read More

Girl from Ipanema: The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim

The first of several tribute albums issued just after Antonio Carlos Jobim's death, this one generally sticks to his most famous songs as interpreted by several Brazilian and American artists from PolyGram's archives. Jobim himself appears on such obvious choices as the best-selling Stan Getz, Joćo Gilberto, and Astrud Gilberto hit "The Girl... Read More

Amoroso/Brasil
Artist: Joćo Gilberto

Two of the influential Joćo Gilberto's LPs (Amoroso and Brasil) are combined on this single CD. The former session is pretty definitive with Gilberto interpreting four of Antonio Carlos Jobim's compositions (including "Wave" and "Triste") and four other songs (highlighted by "Besame Mucho," "Estate," and an odd 31-bar rendition of "'S... Read More

Verve Jazz Masters 13
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Elis & Tom
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Community Score: 9.50

Elis Regina, a cool, feminine Brazilian singer who died tragically of cocaine/alcohol poisoning at age 36, made this often deeply affecting album with Jobim in Los Angeles for the Brazilian market only; it was not released in the U.S. until 1989. While there is plenty of bossa nova here, the arrangements at times reflect the more cinematic, more... Read More

Terra Brasilis
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim

In some ways, this is a strategic retreat for Jobim after the classical departures of the '70s -- a retrospective of past triumphs, including some of the most trod-upon standards ("Ipanema," "Desafinado," "One-Note Samba," etc.), with Claus Ogerman again at hand. But these are thoughtful retoolings, some subtle, some radical, ranging in backing... Read More

Urubu
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim

Urubu is the album that MCA's Jobim probably aspired to be, a total break away from the bossa nova past that is both ambitious and strikingly original. The shock of dissonant strings, percussive and wind sounds from the Brazilian interior greet us on the first track "Bōto," the first of four songs in which a defiant Jobim throws structural... Read More

Wave
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Community Score: 10.00

When Creed Taylor left Verve/MGM for his own label under the auspices of A&M, he quickly signed Antonio Carlos Jobim and they picked up right where they left off with this stunningly seductive record, possibly Jobim's best. Jobim contributes his sparely rhythmic acoustic guitar, simple melodic piano style, a guest turn at the harpsichord, and... Read More

Stone Flower
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Community Score: 10.00

Recorded in 1970 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey under the production auspices of Creed Taylor, the arrangement and conducting skills of Deodato, and the engineering expertise of Van Gelder himself, Jobim's Stone Flower is quite simply one of his most quietly stunning works -- and certainly the high point of his time at Columbia.... Read More

The Composer of Desafinado, Plays
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Community Score: 10.00

In his first American album, Antonio Carlos Jobim presents a dozen of his songs, each one destined to become a standard -- an astounding batting average. Jobim, who claimed to have been out of practice at the time of the session, merely plays single notes on the piano with one hand, punctuated by chords now and then, sticking to his long,... Read More

Antonio Brasilero
Artist: Antonio Carlos Jobim
Community Score: 10.00

Not only did Jobim stay active until the end of his life, he showed virtually no signs of creative burnout, as this, his last album, wondrously displays. Surrounded again by family and friends, he delivered a brace of 13 songs and compositions (plus two songs by the veteran songwriter Dorival Caymmi), many of them relatively new, most as... Read More