JAZZ REVIEW : Jobim, Thielemans at Bowl

Brazil and Belgium. An odd couple of countries, you might think, to provide the basis for a jazz concert at the Hollywood Bowl. But that’s how it went Wednesday when Toots Thielemans, the harmonica virtuoso from Brussels, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, the godfather of bossa nova, were the headliners.

Essentially it was a Brazilian evening, with Jobim in command after intermission, reminding us that his songs have now inspired two generations of North and South American aficionados. Cool and deceptively casual like his music, he sat at the piano applying his slight but charming voice to everything from “Desafinado”--to which he surprisingly attached a verse with English lyrics--to the closing “The Girl From Ipanema.”

Jobim’s ensemble is largely a two-family affair. Dori Caymmi, who had sung and played in the first half, was represented by two young Caymmis. Jobim’s wife and daughter were members of the vocal quintet, and his son Paulo played guitar. The five voices blended gracefully. On a few numbers Jobim sang simply with the instrumentalists.

The prevailing language, of course, was Portuguese, but Jobim sprang a few surprises, singing in English a witty song about his arrival in New York, where he was greeted as “Mr. Bim” or “Joe,” and a strongly worded anti-pollution song, written for the recent world summit, titled “Forever Green.”

All the hits were there: “Wave” (as an instrumental), “No More Blues,” “One Note Samba” (with Thielemans as guest soloist) and his most ingenious and haunting song, “The Waters of March,” fascinating even in Portuguese (but why didn’t he sing his English lyrics?).

The first half of the program was uneven. The brilliant Thielemans, who should have had a set of his own, wandered on and off stage every 15 minutes. During his absences Ivan Lins, Oscar Castro-Neves and Dori Caymmi sang and played their well-conceived, attractively executed songs. Lins, now a superstar in Brazil, closed the set singing Portuguese lyrics to Thielemans’ biggest hit, “Bluesette.” Though the ad hoc group of Brazilians didn’t quite settle into a groove, they came off generally as spirited and entertaining.

If it is true that jazz is the sound of surprise, it might be added that music from Rio is the sound of harmonic surprise. Rhythmically, however, it seldom falls short, as the subtly syncopated guitar punctuations made clear when Castro-Neves sang and played.

The audience, which included large pockets of Brazilians who reacted vociferously to the Portuguese lyrics, was a near-capacity 17,670.