Wave

I love this CD - I can put it in no matter the time of day and unwind and relax. It has soothing orchestration, gentle touches of life and the musicianship is stellar, of course, and it's very romantic. It's almost like there's a song for each season of the year and once the music plays, you're taken to another place. Of all the Antonio Carlos Jobim releases, this is certainly an essential - along with Elis and Tom. So many artists have redone works here and it's safe to say that very very few of them capture the magic that the versions here do - with the notable exception of Elis Regina's "Triste" IMO.

Definitely PICK THIS UP! It's worth every penny. But be warned if you're a bit new to Bossa Nova, this isn't so much about Astrud Gilberto, Stan Getz or Joao Gilberto so the versions here are very different from theirs. And if you do pick this up and like it, certainly check out Getz/Gilberto, Elis & Tom, Astrud Gilberto and of course Joao Gilberto and work by Joyce. Oh yeah, and check out "Tide", by Antonio Carlos Jobim too. Enjoy!


Antonio's Ultra-Lounge   December 27, 2001
douglas barton (Arlington, Va.)
11 out of 14 found this review helpful

Never being one who would spoil a party ( and in this case a Bossa Nova party at that! )critiquing Antonio Jobim's " Wave " should be a 'labor-of-love' for me. Anyone perusing my back catalogue of reviews here [...] will have no doubt noticed of my affection for Mr. Jobim and the Bossa Nova style that he almost single handidly created back in the late fifties with Stan Getz ( see " Girl From Ipanema " ). And his work with singer Astrud Gilberto still ranks extremely high on my desert island disc compilations. I found his work with these artists, plus Sinatra's fine album with Antonio, to be almost flawless. High praise indeed! But, with that being said....

I cannot say with any real truthfulness what I was expecting from " Wave " but, while I still enjoy the cd immensely, I find that I'm left asking myself..." is that all there is? " Again, I truly respect the work of this amazing Brazilian composer but, unfortunatey, much of what is performed here sounds perilously close to a sort of 'lounge' music, albeit excellent lounge music at that! The tunes themselves are wonderfully melodic and harmonically very interesting as well but, in the end, after a few listens, there's not much here that leaves any lasting impressions on me. Perhaps I should chalk this up to my 1) being an innocent when it comes to understanding the compositional aspects and the skills involved in the performing of music or 2) my simply having a 'tin ear'! I guess it's probably both. I won't deny that there is probably much more going on here that I am sadly missing and maybe with time I'll be able to pick up on the nuances that fill this album but.... Again, while I enjoyed the cd very much it did leave me with that martini-soaked, cha-cha-cha feeling, ala Henry Mancini style, that was prevelant in the early sixties. Fortunately though I still enjoy ( and somewhat subscribe ) to that lifestyle very much, thank-you!

Overall, while though this review is less than sterling I would still heartily recommend adding " Wave " to your own collection. I still admire Antonio Jobim but, for me at least, I suspect he will be all the better appreciated when his work is performed by other talented singers as well. As for myself, I have found that 'shuffling' this fine disc with Sinatra's incredible cd with Jobim and perhaps throwing in one of Astrud's release's ( see " Her Finest Hour " ) seems to work, in tandem, very well together. It truly sets the mood for a wonderfully relaxing, bachelor, devil-may-care sort of evening that is hard to deny. Mr. Jobim has more than proven himself to be a virtuoso performer/composer and I wouldn't try to change that legacy for a moment. So enjoy and perhaps give me a passing thought when you pour that first martini! Mmmm.... now all I need is to find is those silk pajamas!


Eternal   January 11, 2007
Patrick Ruymen (Ghent, Belgium, E. U.)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

Eternal in beauty, in refined arrangements, in smoothness, perfect for a erotico- romantic night.


Timeless   February 10, 2007
L. S. Slaughter (Chapel Hill, NC)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

As for the Amazon editor reviewer, I cannot imagine what kind of dead soul would say that these arrangements approach stale cheese. I pity people who cannot find their feelings under the weight of their infotainmentized pseudo-intellect. It's a gorgous piece of work, Ogerman's orchestrations and all, and if it approaches kitsch, well, that would only be true for minds who grew up having second-hand lives and experiences from growing up on TV and 'simulated living' - that pitiful Tarantino crowd of arrmchair weasel critics. It's true that Jobim had some less than stellar albums, but this was not one of them. Stick that up your Sunporch Cha-Cha-Cha.


The Primitive Sophisticate   April 4, 2005
M. Jourard (Kirkland, WA United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

As a consumer, I appreciate Jobim's genius as a creator of wonderful music and great albums. In fact, this is the most romantic instrumental album I know of, great for setting a mood, heck, some of it just plain sounds like languid sex ("Dialogo"). As a musician, I am simply in awe of Jobim's unique blend of earthiness and sophistication--the melodies, the connection to nature, the "primitive" rhythms--combined with chords and chord progressions of the highest complexity. The chords to his songs are absolutely jazz to the extreme, and yet it is all grounded by the Brazilian natural world. Jobim was a musical genius, and the main thing he brings to the world of music was....beauty. I had the pleasure of hearing a band play that consisted of Jobim's son and grandson and his cello player from when he played gigs, along with an exquisite female vocalist. They did his songs justice. The music world is a better place because of Jobim.