Frank Sinatra

4 1/2 STARS ALL MUSIC GUIDE

By 1967, bossa nova had become quite popular within jazz and traditional pop audiences, yet Frank Sinatra hadn't attempted any Brazil-influenced material. Sinatra decided to record a full-fledged bossa nova album with the genre's leading composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim. Arranged by Claus Ogerman and featuring Jobim on guitar and backing vocals, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim concentrated on Jobim's originals, adding three American classics - "Baubles, Bangles and Beads," "Change Partners," and "I Concentrate on You" - that were rearranged to suit bossa nova conventions. The result was a subdued, quiet album that used the Latin rhythms as a foundation, not as a focal point.

Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim doesn't reveal its pleasures immediately; the album is too textured and understated to be fully appreciated within one listen. After a few plays, the album begins to slowly work its way underneath a listener's skin, and it emerges as one of his most rewarding albums of the '60s.  -  Stephen Thomas Erlewine (aLL mUSIC gUIDE)

SIDE A:

01. The Girl From Ipanema
02. Dindi
03. Change Partners
04. Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)
05. Meditation (Meditação)

SIDE B:

01. If You Never Come To Me (Inútil Paisagem)
02. How Insensitive (Insensatez)
03. I Concentrate On You
04. Baubles, Bangles And Beads
05. Once I Loved (O Amor Em Paz)

Recorded in "a cold monday, March 1st (1967), at the Western Studios, Sunset Boulevard, USA"