Sinatra/Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings

Frank Sinatra released dozens of albums for the Reprise label beginning in 1961. Every once in awhile he would share equal billing with the likes of Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and the co-subject of this review, one A.C. Jobim. Antonio Carlos Jobim was a popular Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, vocalist, guitarist, and piano player. Immensely respected in his home country, he gained commercial acceptance in The United States for his albums with Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto.… Read...

Gabriela Anders

Gabriela Anders was born into a family of musicians. The Argentinean native studied classical guitar and piano in Buenos Aires while listening closely to her father, jazz saxophonist Jorge Anders. “There were so many influences when I was growing up, and I wanted to do something with them all. My father’s concerts and studio work certainly affected me, as did the music of Brazil— it’s so harmonically rich and so interesting melodically. … Read...

Ithamara Koorax & Juarez Moreira, Bim Bom: The Complete João Gilberto Songbook

Little did the world know that when João Gilberto (Bahia, 1931) added his special guitar accompaniment and beat to Elizeth Cardoso’s recording of Tom Jobim-Vinícius de Moraes’ “Chega de Saudade,” he was creating a mark for what would become known as Bossa Nova. The year was 1958, and that recording appeared in the LP Canção do Amor Demais (now also available on CD).… Read...

Minas

Orlando Haddad and Patricia King formed Minas in 1978 at North Carolina School of the Arts to bring Brazilian music to stateside audiences. They proceeded to play all over the eastern US before going back to their musical roots in Brazil, where they entertained, traveled extensively and recorded their first album, Num Dia Azul. Today Minas is one of the most sought after Brazilian bands in the United States.… Read...

Adriana Calcanhotto

Self-confessed daughter and enthusiastic of the modernist tradition and Tropicalismo, Adriana Calcanhotto had already six albums – the latest Cantada, had been released some time ago in Buenos Aires–, but more than a musician, she would rather think of herself as a minimalist performer: a curious “gaúcha” (born in Rio Grande do Sul), devoted to Joao Gilberto, Godard and John Cage, who turns all that she sings into contemporaneous art, just feeling herself at home where everyone else feels uncomfortable: at the edge of all things.… Read...

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