A collection of sexy, steamy soul bossa tracks with the sounds of Brazil. With some of the most-recognizable names, not to mention many of the others present from the many wonders of Brazilian music, this is the perfect compilation to chill out to!

Cafe Ipanema is a compilation of 42 musica popular brazil tracks released as 3-CD on 1 Jul 2011. Cafe Ipanema includes a.o. the following tracks: "Caetano Veloso - Samba Em Paz", "Seu Jorge - O Samba Tai", "Ituana - Garota De Ipanema", "Lizette & Groove Da Praia - Beat It" and more.

The work of an artist often suggests that of an alchemist. In her new album, Aire, Mexican singer and composer Magos Herrera transformed the grief, fears, and loneliness of a deadly plague into a luminous collection of songs representing "a celebration of our humanity and the healing power of music."

Astrud Gilberto's entry in the nicely appointed Verve Jazz Masters compilation series shows exactly why the Brazilian singer is deserving of such an accolade. In her '60s heyday, Gilberto was often derided by jazz purists for her vibrato-less "desafinado" (deliberately slightly off-pitch) singing style and deadpan, childlike voice. But the diminutive bossa nova star has since been a huge influence on dozens of jazz and pop singers. VERVE JAZZ MASTERS is less of a greatest hits package than it is a smartly balanced retrospective of many of Gilberto's best performances. Her biggest hits, "Call Me" and "Summer Samba," are not included, and her signature tune, "The Girl From Ipanema," is only represented by a live take from a 1964 Carnegie Hall concert. The collection places equal emphasis on Gilberto's bossa nova-style interpretations of jazz standards and on her signature Portuguese-language sambas.

This album consists of five songs from Nothing Like the Sun… re-recorded in Spanish and Portugese. This was a well-done project – the translations are good and Sting manages the Spanish and Portugese pronunciations well. However, unless you are huge fan, or enjoy hearing the songs sung in different languages, this is an album you'll want to pass over.

Astrud Gilberto has never been properly anthologized by Verve Records; although they've released a number of compilations over the years, none of them have been definitive, and most of them have been rather skimpy. 1987's The Silver Collection, originally released only in Europe but later imported to North America, is an idiosyncratic selection. It omits "The Girl From Ipanema," her biggest hit, includes all 11 tracks from her 1965 release The Astrud Gilberto Album, and adds on a selection of singles and album tracks recorded from 1965 to 1970 with no particular logic. All that said, however, it's still one of the best compilations available of this idiosyncratic but brilliant singer's '60s material. Jazz purists turn up their noses at Gilberto, correctly pointing out her near total lack of technical ability. However, the Brazilian songbird's appealingly plain voice, with its deliberately wobbly pitch (the "desafinado" style celebrated in Antonio Carlos Jobim's song of that title), total lack of vibrato, and deadpan phrasing, is a delight for those attuned to its charms.

This five-LP box set (which has been reissued on CD) contains nearly all of Stan Getz's classic bossa nova sessions, five wonderful yet diverse LPs (Jazz Samba, Big Band Bossa Nova, Jazz Samba Encore, Stan Getz/Laurindo Almedia, and Getz/Gilberto). The cool-toned tenor is heard on his groundbreaking collaboration with guitarist Charlie Byrd (which resulted in the best-selling "Desafinado"), is showcased with a big band arranged by Gary McFarland (introducing "No More Blues" and "One Note Samba"), stars in recordings with guitarists Laurindo Almeida and Luiz Bonfa, and is heard at the famous meeting with composer/pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim, guitarist João Gilberto, and singer Astrud Gilberto, which resulted in the major hit "The Girl From Ipanema." This essential set finishes off with three previously unissued performances from a 1964 Carnegie Hall Concert, concluding with a remake of "The Girl From Ipanema." These recordings stand as proof that it is possible for good music to sell.

Despite a standard line-up (keyboards, guitar-vocals, bass & drums-percussions), Tantra played elaborated and beautifully built and arranged Progressive songs in Portuguese, which figured at the same creative level as the best English composers (Yes, Gentle Giant, Camel…) but with a distinct character. Without a question Tantra's "Misterios e Maravilhas" is a classic and rightfully considered by this progressive rock fan as one of those albums which you must own if you are a lover of 70's Prog rock. Songs are truly wonderfully written and performed with the greatest of precision and emotion. Instrumentation is full with heavy analog keyboard/piano flavours and dreamy - chocolate layered symphonic landscapes, guitars both acoustic and electric and just dripping with expression and cloud soaring aspects…

Issued nearly a year after Jobim's death, this three-CD set is ground zero, the place to start if you don't have any Jobim in your collection or for anyone who wants a single package of his multifaceted art. The set encompasses not only Jobim's own sporadic work for Verve from 1963 until his final 1994 Carnegie Hall concert and the two A&M albums of 1967 and 1970, but also sessions led by Stan Getz, Joao, and Astrud Gilberto in which Jobim appeared as a sideman. Guitarist Oscar Castro-Neves, who selected the music for this set, follows a unique game plan, devoting disc one to vocal renditions of Jobim's songs, disc two to instrumental versions, and disc three to multiple comparisons of a few Jobim standards by different performers…

Josee Koning, one of the most prominent ‘Brazilian’ voices in Europe, and Grammy winner Ivan Lins celebrate 25 years of friendship with a new album titled Doce Presença. The project has its roots in 2006 when the two of them performed the title track live in concert. Sixteen years later, during a walk on the beach together, Ivan wondered why the song never got released. Josee told him she was thinking of recording a new album, and Ivan decided instantly he would be the producer. To 11 new takes the 2006 live recording was added as a bonus track and a circle rounded. Abraços!

"Txai" is described as a term of respect for those who are allies of the forest – and such is the focus of this concept album, the end result of a fact-finding voyage through part of the northern Brazilian watershed. Utilizing forces ranging from a simple dialogue between Milton Nascimento's baritone and percussion to a large orchestra and chorus (often arranged by Wagner Tiso), Nascimento shares his thoughts about the rivers and nature, ultimately warning us not to let the forces of capitalism destroy the Amazon rain forest (reinforced by a spoken passage written and narrated by actor River Phoenix). The songs are separated by wild-sounding interludes of folk music from the peoples of the region, and there is a fascinating vocal/percussion arrangement of Heitor Villa-Lobos' "Nozani Na."

Verve finally made a good remaster of the old Carlos Jobin classics. All the original songs like the famous "The Girl From Ipanema", "Wave", "Triste", "Desafinado" and many other are very well restored giving full frequency and dynamic range to the music.
It has been said that Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim was the George Gershwin of Brazil, and there is a solid ring of truth in that, for both contributed large bodies of songs to the jazz repertoire, both expanded their reach into the concert hall, and both tend to symbolize their countries in the eyes of the rest of the world. With their gracefully urbane, sensuously aching melodies and harmonies, Jobim's songs gave jazz musicians in the 1960s a quiet, strikingly original alternative to their traditional Tin Pan Alley source.