Elis & Tom

Antonio Carlos Jobim and Elis Regina

album cover

A Pairing of Subtle Sensibilities

This summit meeting features songs written by the king of the sidewinding half-step melody, sung with reverence by the queen of disconsolate yearning. Recorded over two days in Los Angeles in 1974, Elis & Tom arrived more than a decade after the "bossa nova craze" swept America. Antonio Carlos Jobim was known worldwide for his lithe and strikingly beautiful melodies ("Wave," "Triste," etc.), which had been endlessly reimagined by singers and jazz players. Likewise, Elis Regina was well established as a quintessentially Brazilian voice, a singer whose languid phrasing described emotions too fragile to be attached to specific words.

Though she'd been through the Jobim songbook more than once, Regina is hardly on autopilot. Quite the opposite: She sings Jobim as though tasting exotic fruit for the first time—somewhat cautiously, and with curiosity. "What I hear in this," says the jazz singer Jane Monheit, "is someone claiming songs that have been done too often, restoring a bit of the quietude that was inside them originally."

Regina flourishes within the spare atmosphere. Tunes like the opening duet "Aguas de Marco" are built around a simple rhythm section, with strings and other embellishments deployed judiciously. The selections include several of Jobim's lesser-known gems, including the rhapsodic "So tinha de ser com você." Regina approaches these pieces intending to shine gentle light on the melodic details Jobim has loaded inside. There are many. She finds them all. And she lifts them up on her fingertips and gives the melodies wings, spreading wonder the way Jobim does—effortlessly.

Genre: World, Brazil
Released: 1974, Verve
Key Tracks: "Aguas de Marco," "Triste," "Modinha," "So tinha de ser com você"
Catalog Choice: Jobim: Jobim. Regina: Como & porque. Toots Thielemans and Elis Regina: Aquarela do Brazil
Next Stop: Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben: Gil & Jorge
After That: Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong: Ella and Louis
Book Pages: 398–399