While classically trained, Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfa became one of the prime movers of bossa nova, recording with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Getz, and composing many bossa nova standards, including the classic "Manha Da Carnaval" from Orfeu Negro. O Violão e o Samba, originally issued in 1962, features a somewhat more upbeat program than Bonfa’s other albums of the time. And the added presence of lyrical flute and mellow vocals makes this an even more attractive addition to any afficianado's collection of original/first wave bossa nova discs.

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.

Alongside Joao Gilberto and Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa (the co-composer of Black Orpheus) is one of the original trailblazers of the bossa nova sound. Released in 1963 on Verve, Plays And Sings Bossa Nova can safely be certified a classic of the genre. Elegant, lyrical, rhythmic, and a showcase for Bonfa’s deft guitar technique and sweet, unassuming singing, Plays And Sings is an album that will sound good to almost anyone, at any time.

A collection of Jobim's Brazilian songs on an Argentinean record production, but it is really the first song, Eu sei que vou te amar, that's worth the whole disc. Every once in awhile a writer, artist or composer creates a jewel, when everything worthwhile comes together and the total is a masterpiece, worth far more than the sum of its parts. The melody, the lyric, and Maysa's incomparable voice transcend a song about love lasting a lifetime and become love itself.

Exalted as "The George Gershwin of Brazil," Antonio Carlos Jobim was an incredibly prolific composer who wrote many songs that became standards in Brazilian and jazz circles. But in fact, Jobim also composed many great songs that aren't standards, and on this absorbing CD, Ana Caram insightfully spotlights some of the Jobim pearls that aren't nearly as well known as "The Girl From Ipanema," "Triste" or "Corcovado." Indeed, The Other Side of Jobim underscores the fact that for every "Desafinado" or "One Note Samba" he wrote, there was a lesser-known treasure like "Ana Luiza," "Olha Maria" or "Esperanca Perdida." Even those with an extensive knowledge of Brazilian music may not be familiar with "Correnteza" or "Demais," but as Caram obviously realizes, they certainly deserve to be.

Recorded at a video taping in the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles as part of the Jazzvisions series, this was Jobim's live act shortly after he resumed touring in the mid-'80s. At the time, Jobim struck an avuncular, almost casually anti-show-business presence seated before a grand piano, presiding over a large ensemble composed of friends and family, singing in his endearingly rough, now-threadbare voice. Some of the performances here are little more than pro-forma run-throughs of standard Jobim oldies but things perk up when Jobim digs into some lesser-known compositions like his "Song of the Jet" and son Paulo's catchy "Samba do Soho." In any case, the material is always superb and the cool-voiced, always in-pitch Brazilian singer Gal Costa turns up on a few numbers.

Black Orpheus the film by Marcel Camus, and its soundtrack, were the signposts by which the world first learned of samba and bossa nova and fell in love with it. Therefore, it is staggering to consider that it took until 2008 for a definitive edition of the soundtrack to be released, one that assembled all the songs and music heard in the film. After all, this is the score that created the partnership of composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes, and introduced the brilliant and influential guitarist Luiz Bonfá. Universal France has assembled all the sound recordings into one 17-track volume. These include the two original 45 EPs, and the 10" 33 rpm album, as well as some tracks that have never appeared before now…

Bossa Nova translated as the "new beat" or "the new style", grew out of Rio De Janeiro in 1958. The instigators were a handful of artists with a desire to break from tradition, developing the samba rhythms with the influence of cool American jazz to find a music with such a warm soul and natural rhythm that no-one can help but tap and sway to its beat. Bossa Nova is palm trees swaying, it is like melting sugar in hot coffee, it is the setting sun and warm sand underfoot. It is the sound and beat of Brazil, it is one of the world's coolest musical styles and it remains to this day one of the world's great musical treasures.

After saluting Antonio Carlos Jobim's lesser-known songs on The Other Side of Jobim, Ana Caram turned to his more famous work with equally splendid results on Bossa Nova. Jobim had recently died when she recorded the CD in January 1995, and the singer/guitarist felt that another tribute was in order. While Other Side purposely avoided standards, Bossa Nova is full of them. Anyone with even a casual knowledge of Brazilian pop-jazz and the bossa nova will be familiar with such standards as "The Girl From Ipanema," "Agua de Beber" and "Chega de Saudade." But while Caram's choices may be obvious, her treatment of them isn't. From "O Pato" to "Double Rainbow," everything on Bossa Nova sounds personal and individualistic rather than cliched.

This Toninho Horta's tribute to Tom Jobim happens to make it clear how similar they are in their open mind and how different they are in their top quality wonderful results. Both are great composers and players with an orchestra's conception in their minds. This is a must-have CD. The Brazilian master guitarrist, arranger and composer Toninho Horta pays his tribute to Tom Jobim.

By 1967, bossa nova had become quite popular within jazz and traditional pop audiences, yet Frank Sinatra hadn't attempted any Brazil-influenced material. Sinatra decided to record a full-fledged bossa nova album with the genre's leading composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Arranged by Claus Ogerman and featuring Jobim on guitar and backing vocals, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim concentrated on Jobim's originals, adding three American classics - "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," "Change Partners," and "I Concentrate on You" - that were rearranged to suit bossa nova conventions. The result was a subdued, quiet album that used the Latin rhythms as a foundation, not as a focal point. Supported by a relaxed, sympathetic arrangement of muted brass, simmering percussion, soft strings, and Jobim's lilting guitar, Sinatra turns in an especially noteworthy performance…

Ana Moura is universally acknowledged as one of the finest fado singers of the present generation. Her plaintive, smoky vocals has garnereda loyal European following, including members of The Rolling Stones. Whether starkly declaiming or swirling into filigreed crescendos of emotion, Ana's burnished alto personifies fado's darkly sensual credo of wisdom born of pain, grace, and futility, and secual passion perpetually on simmer, despite repeated and increasingly bitter betrayals.

Eliane Elias has considerable chops as an acoustic pianist, although as a singer, she is definitely limited and doesn't have a great range by any means. No one's going to mistake Elias' singing for that of Flora Purim, Astrud Gilberto, Gal Costa or Tânia Maria. But while her voice is paper-thin, Elias sings with enough feeling and sincerity to make Sings Jobim a decent, if conventional, Brazilian jazz offering.