list some of your favorite versions of Jobim classics

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Help me find great recordings of classic Jobim tunes. List your faves and any descriptions would be icing on the cake. These can be either instrumental or with vocals. Thanks!

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 12 December 2003 18:29 (twenty years ago) link

This thread was inspired by my listening to Robert Wyatt's version of "Insensatez" on Cuckooland just now. It's full of a wonderful feeling of melancholy - it has a smokey, shuffling, jazz-noir feeling and Wyatt's fragile wispy vocals.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 12 December 2003 18:31 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks for the thread, o. nate.
I'm ashamed to say that the only version of "The Waters Of March" that I know is by Susannah McCorkle, but I do like it alot. (Sorry, but I'm not really good at describing music, but yea...wistful to be sure, twisted with a bit of playfulness. I always want to hear this version again after hearing it once.)

I'm curious what everyone's opinion is of the "Red Hot and Rio" album. Any good versions on it?

― peepee (peepee), Friday, 12 December 2003 19:27 (twenty years ago) link

Thanks. I was surprised when I did a search in the archives and I didn't turn up any threads about Jobim. He seems like such a major figure to me.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 12 December 2003 19:31 (twenty years ago) link

mark murphy does a great
version of 'waters of march,'
all the parts himself

a great achievement
considering it's a duet
and the tempo's FAST

but the best is still
on 'elis and tom' where they
both crack up laughing

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Friday, 12 December 2003 19:33 (twenty years ago) link

This was my Jobim thread from a couple of months ago:

AntonioCarlosJobim - where to start?

― peepee (peepee), Friday, 12 December 2003 19:40 (twenty years ago) link

Last weekend I went back to my hotel in New Orleans to recoup for a couple hours, and they were playing a Frank Sinatra + friends special from the 70s on public television. He and Jobim were sitting in chairs with a little coffee table between them singing duets like they were in a hotel lounge, it was great.

My favorite is probably Roland Dyens' (renegade French classical guitarist) version of A Felicidade though.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 12 December 2003 19:40 (twenty years ago) link

This was my Jobim thread from a couple of months ago

Ah, your elimination of spacing foiled my simple-minded search technique.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 12 December 2003 19:49 (twenty years ago) link

Red Hot + Rio is pretty hit or miss. The best track by far is Everything But the Girl's rendition of "Corcovado"; also good are Maxwell's "Seguranca" and Stereolab's "One Note Samba/Surfboard" (natch for me). But then there's stuff like David Byrne's "Waters of March," which really reveals Byrne's vocal limitations. Some of the rest is just kinda coffee table, which is all right, I guess.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:15 (twenty years ago) link

In addition to the rather obvious Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz interpretations, one of my recent favorites is Vinicius Cantuaria's version of "Este Seu Olhar". Actually, most of his work, including his original compositions, would appeal to Jobim fans.

― Nom De Plume (Nom De Plume), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

(If you're interested in that EBTG song, I should let you know that it's trip-hop/drum-n-bassish. But Tracy Thorn's voice is gorgeous -- she sings it in Portuguese!)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:18 (twenty years ago) link

marginally related (nice brazilian covers), i saw portastatic last night play 2nd on a bill of 3; however, we (the crowd) wouldn't let him leave the stage even after he packed his guitar away. so he got his guitar out and a few requests were thrown out and i requested "baby" (the famous caetano veloso song) that he did on an ep of brazilian covers from 3-4 years ago. much to my (and others) suprise he immediately launced straight into it, delivered in perfect portuguese... a really gorgeous version of it.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:36 (twenty years ago) link

"Baby"??? Is that the same song as done by Os Mutantes???
That is a gem!

― peepee (peepee), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:47 (twenty years ago) link

yes

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 12 December 2003 20:50 (twenty years ago) link

Robert Wyatt's version of "Insensatez"

So odd...someone just made me a mixdisc with this on it.

I always thought Jobim would best be covered incongruously....like by Motley Crue or something. (Actually, I've always harboured a desire to hear Motley Crue play "Mas Que Nada" by Sergio Mendez & Brazil '66. Guess I never will).

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 December 2003 21:32 (twenty years ago) link

"How Insensitive" by Sting with Jobim himself is smooth and aloof. Ron Carter's touch is excellent on the bass.

― bahtology, Friday, 12 December 2003 23:37 (twenty years ago) link

Shatner's version is both clumsy and aloof.

― jazz odysseus, Saturday, 13 December 2003 04:22 (twenty years ago) link

Best to start with Joao Gilberto's '58-'61 recordings, about 40 percent of which were written or co-written by Jobim. Those records, made I'm pretty sure for World Pacific Records, are where bossa nova (and MPB) begins.

The album Jobim made with Elis Regina in '74 is a classic, but I haven't heard anything bad by Jobim himself.

Art Garfunkel's version of "Waters of March" is surprisingly good.

― dylan (dylan), Saturday, 13 December 2003 06:04 (twenty years ago) link

I think someone -- possibly me, but probably not -- should make a mix of nothing but versions of "Waters of March."

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 13 December 2003 06:25 (twenty years ago) link

That would be awesome, actually! Cibo Matto also has a version, IIRC.

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 13 December 2003 10:36 (twenty years ago) link

(Oh, and yeah, Sting's "How Insensitive" is surprisingly okay.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 13 December 2003 10:37 (twenty years ago) link

I don't believe you. I can imagine it very clearly, and it's not okay.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 13 December 2003 10:39 (twenty years ago) link

That would be awesome, actually!

It really would, wouldn't it? I could listen to that song over and over for 80 minutes. Who couldn't?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 13 December 2003 10:44 (twenty years ago) link

AMG shows versions by Gal Costa, Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto, Susannah McCorkle, Sergio Mendes, Cassandra Wilson, Oleta Adams, Basia, David Byrne, Rosemary Clooney, Art Garfunkel, Zoot Sims...

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 13 December 2003 11:20 (twenty years ago) link

(and Cibo Matto and Mark Murphy, who've already been mentioned on the thread)

― jaymc (jaymc), Saturday, 13 December 2003 11:21 (twenty years ago) link

eleven years pass...

god the reprise collection with sinatra is just so glorious, works so well as an album

― dutch_justice, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 05:50 (eight years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMQNMRJn-Eo

― velko, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 07:20 (eight years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxRLVek_ioM

― velko, Wednesday, 25 November 2015 07:27 (eight years ago) link

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