This is a very useful anthology for
Antonio Carlos Jobim collectors, who can now acquire on one CD the entire contents of the Warner Bros albums
The Wonderful World of Antonio Carlos Jobim and
A Certain Mr. Jobim, plus four unreleased tracks from the latter session and the two
Jobim-penned songs from
Love, Strings and Jobim. These sessions present the great man mainly as an English-language vocalist who thus might sell his songs to American easy listening consumers. In the
Wonderful World sessions,
Nelson Riddle takes the reigns of the orchestra, but the man who could brilliantly reveal
Frank Sinatra's soul doesn't quite mesh with
Jobim's; the backings are too bright for the composer's dark, yearning undercurrents. The two cuts from
Love, Strings and Jobim are too brash (could this really be the work of
Eumir Deodato?) but with
A Certain Mr. Jobim,
Jobim is back in the more delicate hands of
Claus Ogerman, who lays on the elusive saudade shadings most effectively in the four lovely Portuguese-language outtakes. There are generous quotas of
Jobim classics here, several forgettable songs too, but also some instrumental sleepers like the tone poem "Surfboard" (heard twice) and the stunningly beautiful "Estrada de Sol."
Jobim nuts will want this, of course. ~ Richard S. Ginell