Jobim Forever, by Gary Fukushima – DownBeat Magazine

Antonio Carlos Jobim is canonized in the annals of jazz history for firmly implanting the term "bossa nova" into public consciousness, and for his gift as a composer. Reharmonize this music at your own peril, for it's hard to improve on perfection.
Such was the challenge facing pianist and composer Antonio Adolfo, who presents these timeless, but well-worn, standards in a fresh light. He might be uniquely suited for the task, given his prominent stature as one of Brazil's preeminent composers and arrangers.
Out of the gate, Adolfo tackles Jobim's best­ known tune, "The Girl From Ipanema," main­taining the song's unusual beauty while shift­ing toward darker moods, as if she were spotted later that night in an elegant evening gown. "A Felicidade" introduces a more portentous sen­timent with a modal pedal point over the open­ ing melodic statement. The tragic harmony of "How Insensitive" remains intact, its Chopin­ inspired harmonic descent uplifted through transpositions of the form.
Overall, the arrangements move fluidly between the composer and arranger's harmon­ic innovations, the subtlety of the changes illus­trating a high degree of deference. The band of Brazilian first-call players executes the music with precision and a radiant, but effervescent, energy indicative of that country's version of West Coast California cool.