Giants of Jazz: Samba Bossa Nova draws 11 songs from the vaults of Muse, Denon, and 32 Jazz recorded between 1967 and 2000. The songs all have the samba or bossa nova flavor that the title promises and range from very strong examples of mainstream jazz (
Grant Green's smooth "Samba de Orpheus" from 1967,
Houston Person and
Teddy Edwards' "The Girl From Ipanema" from 1994) to somewhat cheesy attempts at pop-jazz-Latin fusion (
João Donato's "You Can Go" from 1977 and
Catalyst's "Bahia" from 1975). Mostly though the songs are inoffensive examples of modern mainstream jazz thrown together without much thought or care. If jazz discs were sold in truck stops, the Giants of Jazz series would be the prototype. Half-decent tunes, crummy packaging -- it feels like jazz as commodity, not music. You can find a better collection of bossa nova and samba-inflected jazz than this without much effort. ~ Tim Sendra