Antonio Carlos Jobim

Not only did Jobim stay active until the end of his life, he showed virtually no signs of creative burnout, as this, his last album, wondrously displays. Surrounded again by family and friends, he delivered a brace of 13 songs and compositions (plus two songs by the veteran songwriter Dorival Caymmi), many of them relatively new, most as heartbreakingly beautiful as anything from the bossa nova years. Sometimes Jobim's voice, never impressive, is almost gone and the production has a rough-hewn finish, but it doesn't matter; Jobim's craft and his brood carry him through, and son Paulo Jobim provides thick but highly competent orchestral arrangements. An especially touching passage is the brief "Samba de Maria Luiza," a Jobim duet with his little daughter Maria Luiza, who also turns up on the succeeding ode for the environment, "Forever Green." The final tone poem, "Trem De Ferro," obviously inspired by Heitor Villa-Lobos, is also the most startling, a strange chugging simulation of a train cutting through the underbrush. There is also an idiomatic duet with Sting on the familiar "How Insensitive" (later included on the Red, Hot and Rio anthology), and Caymmi makes a guest vocal appearance on "Maricotinha." Obviously Jobim still had a lot to give, making his death later in 1994 an even more poignant blow. Issued for the Latin market only, though pressed in the U.S., the CD is not difficult to locate in well-stocked big city shops. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide