Antonio Carlos Jobim Music

OperaNews gave this CD a great review, but it was a sad disappointment. She really needs to stick with opera!

When I bought this album, I was a swinging grad student. The music accompanied me when I was working on my experiments (organic synthesis!). I never got bored, it really got me in the mood! So when I was planning my wedding banquet a few years later, I used some of the tracks (from number 6 onwards) during the event. This album will help me chronicle at least the past 3 years of my life. Buy it, you won't regret it. It will inspire you to move on with your life

Focus: O Essencial de Miucha E Tom Jobim is a very important Compact Disc.

It contains on one CD, eleven of the twelve songs off the Miucha and Antonio Carlos Jobim CD, and six of the nine songs off the Miucha & Tom Jobim CD, as well as three additional songs.

The three additional songs are Sol da Meia- Noite, Calice and Segura Coisa.

Focus: O Essencial de Miucha does not contain Vai Levando off the Miucha & Antonio Carlos Jobim CD, or Triste Alegria, No Cego, or Dinheiro Em Penca off the Miucha & Tom Jobim CD.

The Producers of Focus: O Essencial de Miucha E Tom Jobim do the Artist much credit with the playlist they arranged and rewarding the listener with bonus tracks.

With repeated play, there are enough songs to provide hours of listening pleasure.

Nice!

If you like Opera, or if you are just starting to investigate the world of opera, you will love this tape. It has great vignettes by great divas like Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballe, and wonderful tenors like Placido Domingo and Franco Corelli. It is romantic and truly highlights beautiful moments in the works of Puccini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. Worthwhile to add to you music collection. A "keeper".

I bought this album (33 rom) in 1969 or 70. It always touched my heart when I needed to hear something absolutely beautiful but soothing! Now I listen to Sinatra & Jobim on a CD and still feel it is one of Sinatra's best works. There were so many really superior male and female vocalists during Sinatra's heyday but this album was a unique project for him. I recently tried to find a copy for a friend who still says he was the best, but I found it has been discontinued and is no longer available. I do depend on Amazon having what I want always, though, and found there are some used copies for sale. Wish me luck as my friend's 82nd birthday is coming and I can think of nothing she would like more, Sinatra & Jobim was a pairing made for me!!!

Sometimes the stars align for a recording date, and something inexplicably perfect and right and synchronous occurs. On the evidence, that appears to have happened when Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Claus Ogerman, and a small orchestra assembled one day in a recording studio to play the songs of Jobim and a few other American classic tunes given a similar "bossa nova with strings" re-working.

For virtually the entire album, the focus is on softness and controlled intensity, which is very difficult for musicians, especially vocalists and woodwinds. On this stereo remix of the four-track original tape you hear orchestra left, orchestra right (with drum kit). In the middle, slightly to the right, is Frank himself. In the middle, slightly to the left, we hear the constant syncopation of Jobim's nylon-string guitar, and his Portuguese and Portuguese-accented English vocal contributions, which contribute to the atmosphere, but do not markedly steer the spotlight from Sinatra. The instrumental and vocal tone is rich, liquid, with a sense of acoustic space around the instruments. The sound of the strings is sweet, and everything has warm, gorgeous tonal qualities.

Also, this is essentially a live-in-the-studio recording. All the musicians were playing and being recorded at the same time. Sinatra was able to truly feed off what his players were doing in the moment. I believe this adds to the holistic "rightness" of the performance. (The vocals on Corcovado have a different sonic character. This vocal just might have been an overdub recorded after the backing tracks, but I cannot say with certainty.)

The songs should be known by all lovers of the classic songbook and classic bossa nova. Ogerman's arrangements complement Frank's restrained gliding vocal lines, never calling undue attention to themselves. This is not an album that will make you want to twitch about or jump up and dance (unless it's a slow dance). This album is as distinctly American as Sinatra himself, at the same time incorporating the classic elements of bossa nova, even down to the "happy sadness" of the mood. In other words, the sadness of a song is presented with the lightest touch. That girl from Ipanema, "she just doesn't see, she doesn't see me." But it's a line that makes you smile, thinking that the guy will just sigh and shrug it off, not veer into obsession or depression.

Picture yourself on a beach, under the shade of a palm. You have a cool drink. Temperature is a perfect 75. The gentlest of breezes kiss the shore. And this short Sinatra-Jobim album is the soundtrack best fitting that scene. At 28 minutes, it is too short. But would you rather have 50 minutes of mediocre? Or 28 minutes of Sinatra-Jobim perfection?

I heard these on the reprise box set. These are outstanding! An incredible collection. Classics. Sinatra and Jobim is a match made in heaven, and this is a subtly outstanding collection! Wow!

What a combination! Smooth Frankie and the romantic latin of Jobim. Meltingly romantic as well as elegant, sophisticated and seductive. Just add champagne, candlelight and a loved one.

I bought this record in the sixties when I thought Sinatra could do no wrong. I hadn't heard it for decades until I bought the cd fron Amazon- big mistake! The older I get, the more I realise Sinatra's best recording years by far were at Capitol. Even if the song or arrangement were second rate, you still got the honey dripping warmth in The Voice. This is a prime example of FS in the sixties- floundering about, not certain of his material in the face of rock and roll. These were the years of recording Rod Mckuen, Winchester Cathedral,Watertown etc. ending with the execrable Duets. The man couldn't not record and subsequently we have lots of records with a much diminished voice. The Jobim albums are badly dated- his whispering voice has no distinguishing qualities and the arrangments are horrible(excepting the three non-Jobim tracks). On some tracks,Ogerman has the orchestra just stop playing. No drama, no Riddle-esque style. Apart from Ring a Ding Ding, Sinatra and Strings (far and away his best Reprise album), Concert Sinatra, the first Basie album and Sinatra and Swingin' Brass, nothing else is worth buying from his Reprise years, and the Jobim effort is among the worst.