Track Listing

1. Águas de Março [Waters of March]
2. Pois É [So It Is]
3. Só Tinha de Ser Com Você [It Had to Be with You]
4. Modinha
5. Triste [Sad]
6. Corcovado
7. O Que Tinha de Ser [What Had to Be]
8. Retrato Em Branco e Prieto [Picture in Black and White]
9. Brigas, Nuncas Mais [Fights Never More]
10. Por Toda a Minha Vida [For All My Life]
11. Fotografia [Photograph]
12. Soneto de Separação [Song of Separation]
13. Chovendo Na Roseira [Raining on the Rosebush]
14. Inútil Paisagem [Useless Landscape]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3376 in Music
• Released on: 1990-01-05
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Japanese only SHM paper sleeve pressing. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing* SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc* allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players. 2009.

Customer Reviews

The album all Brazilians own
Locals consider Elis Regina the most gifted Brazilian singer ever. She died too soon, in 1980. Tom Jobim is one of the creators of Bossa Nova and the conductor that made the genre famous worldwide. This combination alone would make this CD remarkable. But there's more. A lot more.

Elis was in her top shape in 1974 when the CD was recorded. The arrangements are subtle, delicate. Jobim's piano is sublime here. The recording is flawless, the textures, the tones, everything is crisp and present. Many takes are FIRST TAKES. The emotion was captured raw and sincere, very few overdubs were done.

A rare gem.

If you go to a Brazilian's home and browse through his/her CD collection, chances are this CD will be there. If you ask a musician from that country what are the top 10 albums ever, chances are this will be listed.

If you have to own ONE Brazilian CD, this should be it.

Subtle melancholy magic
A lot of people call this music "easy listening" but if one pays attention to the subtleties, they'll notise it's really not. It's very sophisticated, fascinating music that grows better with age, like a fine wine. Case in point: "Elis & Tom"

This album was not released in the U.S. (even though it was recorded in Los Angeles) until 1989. What a travesty. For those who loved "Wave," this one is for you. Elis Regina's voice fits Jobim's music like a glove: laid back, occasionally light-humoured, and sometimes sad. The accompaniment is equally amazing. Stark guitar smoothed landscapes without a trace of high hat are occasionally and lightly (and I mean LIGHTLY; nothing like Claus Ogerman's occasionally schmaltzy orchestra on "Wave") accented by an orchestra. Jobim's piano playing takes on a more accenting role: it makes points, rather than epounding on them. And then there is Elis. She could be the Brasilian Ella Fitzgerald. She laughs and growls in "Aguas de Marco", but overall she isn't as heavy, and is more subtle than Ella.

I love Jobim's music as instrumentals, and think that vocalisation often renders it musak-y or schmaltzy, but not in this case. Nothing could be further than the point.

Simply the Best
If there is a finer Brazilian vocal recording in existence, I haven't heard it yet. Elis Regina is, simply, one of the finest vocalists of this century. This recording is a tour de force of emotional nuance sung with total conviction. Her delivery of "Retrato Em Branco E Preto", an incredibly difficult piece of music, is nothing short of astonishing, and if you think you've heard "Corcovado" before, listen to her reading and forget everything you've ever heard. Elis imbues several of the tracks with the trademark relaxed, breathy, conversational sensuality characteristic of the style ("Triste" is excellent), but she explores so many levels of feeling over the course of the recording that one is left breathless by the final notes of "Inutil Paisagem". I'm a jazz singer, and Elis Regina's emotional honesty and sensitivity of phrasing are benchmarks toward which I constantly strive in my own performances. If you're a fan of fine vocalists, and you don't have "Elis & Tom", don't miss the chance to add it to your collection.