Jobim Gillbert

Influenced by Brazilian pop and the music of her native Argentina, Gabriela Anders spent much time in America soaking up jazz and R&B sensibilities, all of which inform her singing. The daughter of a jazz saxophone player, Anders studied classical guitar while a child but moved to piano study at a Buenos Aires conservatory. She spent much time in New York as well, soaking up the music of tenor specialists John Coltrane, Stan Getz and Dexter Gordon. She also studied with Don Sebesky and began singing with Grover Washington, Jr. and Tito Puente while going to college. A brief time in Japan resulted in her first album, 1996's Fantasia (recorded as Beleza), though she had returned to New York by 1997. After sending a demo tape into Warner Jazz, Anders signed a contract and released Wanting in August 1998.

Import five CD release from the acclaimed Brazilian singer, songwriter and guitarist contains five of his classic albums housed in paper sleeves in one package. This set features the albums Wonderful World Of (1965); Love Strings & Jobim (1966); A Certain Mr Jobim (1967); Urubu (1976) and Terra Brasilis (1980).

By 1967, bossa nova had become quite popular within jazz and traditional pop audiences, yet Frank Sinatra hadn't attempted any Brazil-influenced material. Sinatra decided to record a full-fledged bossa nova album with the genre's leading composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Arranged by Claus Ogerman and featuring Jobim on guitar and backing vocals, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim concentrated on Jobim's originals, adding three American classics - "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," "Change Partners," and "I Concentrate on You" - that were rearranged to suit bossa nova conventions. The result was a subdued, quiet album that used the Latin rhythms as a foundation, not as a focal point. Supported by a relaxed, sympathetic arrangement of muted brass, simmering percussion, soft strings, and Jobim's lilting guitar, Sinatra turns in an especially noteworthy performance…

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, undulating melodies with a few passages of jazz improvisation now and then. Yet it is a lovely idea, not a gesture is wasted. Arranger Claus Ogerman unveils many of the trademarks that would define his Creed Taylor-produced albums with Jobim - the soaring, dying solo flute and spare, brooding unison string lines widening into lush harmony; flutes doubling on top of Jobim's piano chords - again with an exquisitely spare touch.

Vinicius de Moraes was the lyricist for many of Antonio Carlos Jobim's most durable melodies, and his death in 1980 understandably dealt the great Brazilian composer a devastating blow. That he greatly missed de Moraes is quite obvious in this lovingly performed, posthumously released concert, recorded (upon the tenth anniversary of de Moraes' death) at Rio's Centro Cultural do Brasil with just a chamber-sized selection of players from Jobim's band of family and friends. A few well-known pieces are included - there is a very touching rendition of "Insensatez" that makes this often-played tune seem freshly minted - but most of the selections are among the less familiar fruits of the collaboration, along with a few songs that de Moraes wrote with Carlos Lyra and Toquinho…

Nice, more light than emphatic Afro-Latin and jazz mixture by flutist Herbie Mann and composer/vocalist Joao Gilberto from 1965. The two make an effective team, with Gilberto's sometimes sentimental, sometimes impressionistic works effectively supported by Mann's lithe flute solos.

Brazil's towering figure of bossa nova, both as a performer and, even more importantly, as a composer.
It has been said that Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim was the George Gershwin of Brazil, and there is a solid ring of truth in that, for both contributed large bodies of songs to the jazz repertoire, both expanded their reach into the concert hall, and both tend to symbolize their countries in the eyes of the rest of the world. With their gracefully urbane, sensuously aching melodies and harmonies, Jobim's songs gave jazz musicians in the 1960s a quiet, strikingly original alternative to their traditional Tin Pan Alley source.

It has been said that Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (Tom Jobim) was the George Gershwin of Brazil, and there is a solid ring of truth in that, for both contributed large bodies of songs to the jazz repertoire, both expanded their reach into the concert hall, and both tend to symbolize their countries in the eyes of the rest of the world. With their gracefully urbane, sensuously aching melodies and harmonies, Jobim's songs gave jazz musicians in the 1960s a quiet, strikingly original alternative to their traditional Tin Pan Alley source…