Ipanema

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.

Simply put, here are the most successful 14 cuts covering two years in the collaboration between Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim, during which both men became accustomed to having hit singles. Unfortunately, only one of them got to ride that horse for the rest of the decade - in the United States, anyway. Nonetheless, this material marks the Americans obsession with the bossa nova and was the music that made Getz and Jobim household names for a while - after all, we were just climbing out of the "swinging bachelor pad" music era and still had all those weird hi fi records to explore. Seriously though, the great sensitivity shown by Getz for this material, and the adventurousness of Jobim were a match made in heaven and would change the faces of jazz and Brazilian pop forever. This is a fine collection for anyone interested in bossa, and Getz in this period as well.

This is the soundtrack to the 1967 Brazilian film "Garôta de Ipanema". There are plenty of stars on this collection - Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, Tamba Trio, Baden Powell, Quarteto em Cy and MPB-4, as well as instrumental orchestral interpretations. The style is mainly mid-to-late 60's bossa nova, with the exception of Ronnie Von's Tropicalia-eque pop version of "Por Você". The songs are by Jobim, Vinícius de Moraes, Chico Buarque and Ary Barroso. The production is lush and smooth - a nice, breezy addition to any Brazil nut's collection.

Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto, Maria Creuza, featuring Stan Getz, Gary Burton, Kenny Burrell.