CD REVIEW : How Sensitive: The Timeless Art of Jobim

* * * 1/2

ANTONIO CARLOS JOBIM

“The Man From Ipanema”

Verve

What’s the best test of excellence for a composer? The number of works recorded? The albums sold? The money earned?

Possibly. Composers are no different from anyone else in their desire for the good life that material success can bring.

But there is a more subtle, and perhaps more significant test of excellence: the capacity of a composer’s art to survive the slings and arrows of outrageous interpretations. The songs and compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim were often subjected to revisions, reworkings and re-translating--much of it apparent in this three-CD collection. Regardless of what was done, the essential excellence of his music was unshakable.

Jobim, who died last December of heart failure at age 67, never claimed parentage of the bossa nova sounds that emerged in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. But it was Jobim--with an astonishing group of compositions such as “Desafinado,” “Corcovado,” “Insensatez,” “Amor Em Paz” and “The Girl From Ipanema”--who used the style’s rich harmonies and rhythms as the foundation for a body of work that is one of the creative wonders of the second half of the 20th Century.

Much of that music, often via the original recordings, is present in this colorful anthology of Jobim’s works. And so, too, are the problems, which course intermittently through the 55 selections: barely adequate singing from Astrud Gilberto, occasionally intrusive string arrangements, awkward-sounding English lyrics. (In the liner notes, guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, a close Jobim associate, points out that some of the translations “do not represent the originals” and that “what Americans are missing [from the translations] is the fact that there is a lot of poetry [in the originals].”)

And how does the music survive? Almost always brilliantly. It may be ironic that most of the Jobim tunes are known to the North American audience for the mesmerizing qualities of their melodies and rhythms rather than the unforgettability of the English words. But it also is testimony to the meticulousness of his overall compositional conception.

“You could change a [background] line here or there,” recalls Castro-Neves, “but you didn’t want to, because the arrangement was such an integral part of the song.”

The first disc, “Vocals,” is an eclectic mix, with several breathy Jobim English readings of post-bossa nova songs, the classic Stan Getz-Joa~o Gilberto “So Danco Samba,” (including a choice example of Gilberto’s bossa nova rhythm-defining guitar accompaniment) and one or two of Astrud Gilberto’s better performances (“Amor Em Paz” and “Agua De Beber”).

Best of all, however, there is a set of near-perfect tracks from 1965 and 1974 recordings with singer Elis Regina, the finest, truest interpreter of Jobim’s music. Among the selections: marvelous vocal and instrumental duets with Regina on “Aguas De Marco,” “Chovendo Na Roseira” (Double Rainbow) and, especially, “Inutil Paisagem”; Regina’s gorgeous rendering of the art song-like “Modinha,” “Soneto Da Separaca~o” and “Zingaro” and the previously unreleased (in the United States) “Bonita,” and, from a later date, Jobim’s intimate version of the passionate, moving melody of “Luiza” and the celebration of his own English-language lyric writing skills in the whimsical “Chansong.”

The remaining discs have their fascinating moments--as Jobim’s music always does--even though the interpretations are not nearly as compelling as the performances on the first disc.

A collection of instrumentals on the second disc includes tracks from Jobim orchestral sessions in 1963, 1967 and 1970 that were initially released on LPs titled “The Composer of ‘Desafinado’ Plays,” “Wave” and “Tide.” The third disc--”Side by Side”--provides an interesting illustration of the manner in which the inherent excellence of Jobim’s music is sustained throughout matching performances of “Desafinado,” “The Girl From Ipanema,” “Corcovado,” “Insensatez” and “Viva Sonhando” by Stan Getz, Joe Henderson, Astrud Gilberto and Jobim.

Finally, the collection is beautifully packaged in a double-ring binder book filled with photographs of Jobim over the course of his career and enriched by Castro-Neves’ reminiscences, a 1967 Jobim interview with writer Gene Lees and a biography by Brazilian musicologist Sergio Cabral.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good, recommended) and four stars (excellent).