JAZZ REVIEWS : JOBIM AT WILTERN

Monday evening at the Wiltern Theater, a large and appreciative audience was reminded of an important historical point. Overlapping and preceding an intrusion from the east in the form of the Beatles and a rock revolution, an invasion from the south brought us the gentlest, purest, least clamorous and most melodious music of that decade.

Antonio Carlos Jobim, who more than any other composer/artist was responsible for creating the definitive repertoire of the Brazilian new wave, was the central figure in this brief (80 minutes) and consistently delightful concert, produced with taste and obvious affection by Jack Lewis. This was the first of his “Jazzvisions” series, organized mainly for videotaping and for compact disc release.

Jobim’s presentation was masterful in its simplicity. All he needed was his self-written material, a small ensemble to play the arrangement, five female vocalists singing unison and occasional harmony and his guest, Gal Costa.

Jobim himself is neither a Frank Sinatra nor an Oscar Peterson; he sings and plays in the unpretentious manner called for by the songs. As he reminded us of one hit after another, with soothing swatches of color by flute, guitar, cello, bass and drums, one could only be astonished by the breadth and depth of his achievements.

Though he seemed to start at the top, with “One Note Samba,” “Desafinado” and “Agua de Beber,” it soon became clear that his fund of master works is all but endless, for he followed with “Chega de Saudade (No More Blues),” “Dindi,” “Wave,” “Triste” and several others.

Costa, evidently a big favorite with the local Brazilian community (her ovations were greater than Jobim’s), is a modestly capable singer; like the star, she sang mainly in Portuguese but also in English. Strangely, though she performed “Corcovado” twice (once as an encore), she never used the English version, though the alternate title “Quiet Nights” and Gene Lees’ lyrics are very much a part of the song’s reputation in this country.

This was very much a family affair. In the vocal quintet were Jobim’s wife and daughter; on guitar was his son Paulo, who sang one of his own compositions very pleasantly. Jobim Sr. saved some of his big guns for the end: “Waters of March,” with his own English lyrics, may just be the greatest wedding of original and inventive words and music assembled by a single composer in the last 25 years. As if that were not enough, he encored with “The Girl From Ipanema.”

At a time in our history when we are inundated with the sonic equivalent of mud wrestling, he makes music that comes across the footlights dancing.