Antonio Carlos Jobim: The Composer Of Desafinado, Plays [VERVE]

Why you'll love it

This Verve reissue comes on 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. The album entered the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001, and Down Beat's Pete Welding said this record alone would have justified the whole bossa nova movement.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo mix

About the album

Plenty of composers hear their songs done by other people first. By 1963 the world knew Antonio Carlos Jobim's tunes through Stan Getz and others, and with producer Creed Taylor he finally stepped up to show everyone how he heard them himself. Claus Ogerman wrote the arrangements, the start of a partnership that lasted the rest of Jobim's life.

All twelve pieces are instrumental, and nearly all are now standards. "The Girl from Ipanema" opens the album, a song reckoned to be the second most recorded in history after "Yesterday," and it's followed by "Agua de Beber," "Insensatez," "Corcovado," "One Note Samba," "Meditation," "Chega de Saudade" and "Desafinado." George Duvivier on bass, Edison Machado on drums, Leo Wright on flute and Jimmy Cleveland on trombone keep the touch light, with Ogerman's strings drifting in and out.

Rolling Stone Brasil later placed it at No. 58 among the 100 greatest Brazilian records. The producers wanted him on guitar for the Latin-lover image on the cover; he slipped plenty of piano onto the record anyway, which is the most polite act of rebellion we know of.

Also at Kops: more Antonio Carlos Jobim on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Verve (cat# V6-8547), a reissue of the 1963 album.