A little over a year ago, I played a concert in San Paolo, Brazil, the final evening of an eight-night tour. As it turned out, it was the birthday of João Gilberto and as a tribute to him, I excused the band and sat down at the edge of the stage to honor him the only way I knew how: through guitar and voice.
Upon our return to the U.S., my manager Joel Hoffner asked me about recording a second bossa nova album. As I thought about it, and having honored João with my 2004 release, Bossa Nova, I realized there was another birthday coming up. It was the 50th anniversary of the 1967 release of Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. I emailed my friend Daniel Jobim, Tom Jobim's grandson. He’s a terrific musician and I asked him if he'd be interested in honoring this collaboration. We had performed a number of shows together over the years and it was exciting to think about getting into a studio with him.
Time flew, as it usually does, and Daniel couldn't get to the U.S. to do the date with me. He told me to fear not! He would be in the same Rio studio that his grandfather was in when he recorded his duets with Sir Francis, communicating the same with us, as his grandfather did with Sinatra. (Aaah, the glory of a dedicated line!)
Over the period of one week, with Daniel in the Brazilian rain forest and the rest of us bearing the cold weather of a New York January winter, we put these duets together that honor the original Sinatra/Jobim collaboration, along with some of our own songs, adding the help of the great Brazilian musicians Duduka Da Fonseca and Helio Alves (who also appeared on Midnight McCartney) with my fine U.S. cohorts, bassist Mike Karn and saxophonist supreme Harry Allen.
If you listen closely to Daniel you can hear some of the rain forest birds from Brazil chiming in with background vocals.
It is an honor to present this album to you from Daniel and myself, as a birthday present to two masters from their humble servants.