PAULO MOURA VISITA GERSHWIN & JOBIM

There are plenty of reasons for jazz musicians to compare Tom Jobim with American masters like George Gershwin or Cole Porter. Leading a top instrumental septet, Moura testifies to that comparison in this live album, recorded in São Paulo in 1998. It opens with Rhapsody in Bossa, which mingles Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Jobim’s Samba do Avião and Só Danço Samba. Both the arrangements and the interpretation might mislead a heedless listener into thinking that the songs were written by the same author.

In Água de Beber, Moura’s sense of rhythm and improvisation imprints a jazzy approach to the classic Jobim samba. The version of Embraceable You, explores the same procedures, only backwards: it opens with Moura’s saxophone flowing standard jazzy improvisations and finishes as a samba. Summertime opens with an amusing citation of Garota de Ipanema, and it all ends in samba.

If listened to without prejudice, the inventive arrangements by Moura, Korman and Nelson Faria reveal what jazz musicians noticed still in the 60s: the works of Jobim and Gershwin are the result of precious and similar musical traditions. And today, they sound classic. (Carlos Calado)