The Face I Love

by Richie Unterberger Although it was recorded in Rio De Janeiro in the mid-1960s, it's likely this Sylvia Telles album was geared toward the international market, as she sings almost entirely in English on this collection. Too, though she recorded many Antonio Carlos Jobim songs in her career (and in fact recorded an entire album of Jobim material, |SYLVIA|TELLES|SINGS|? Sylvia Telles Sings the Wonderful Songs of Antonio Carlos Jobim), around the same time), there's only one |TUNE|HERE,|">|TUNE|HERE,|?Jobim tune here, "Pardon My English" (co-written with ALOYSIO|DE|OLIVEIRA).?Aloysio De Oliveira). |DOES|SING|">|DOES|SING|?Telles does sing well indeed in English on this record, however, with an only faintly detectable accent and confident phrasing. While a few of the songs are covers of American popular standards (|&">|&?Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II's "It Might As Well Be Spring," GEORGE|GERSHWIN|&|I?GEORGE|GERSHWIN|&|I?George Gershwin & \'S|">'S|?Ira Gershwin's "If Not for Me," and "Baubles, Bangles and Beads"), in the main she stuck to English translations of Brazilian songs, though "Balanco Zona Sul" is sung in the original Portuguese. MARCUS|VALLE|CO-WROTE?Marcus Valle co-wrote three of the numbers with $Paulo Sergio, and these -- especially &"The Face I Love" and &"Surfin' in Rio" -- are highlights, with a somewhat sassier, more uninhibited feel than much of the rest of the record. It's classy period mid-'60s bossa nova with polished arrangements, if a little on the poppy side, showing $Telles remaining in top form not long before her premature death in a car accident.