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Antonio Carlos Jobim, higher generally known as “Tom Jobim” in his homeland, is arguably some of the essential songwriters of the twentieth century, rivaling Gershwin, Porter, McCartney & Lennon, and Wonder for sheer consistency and variety of output. The sheer variety of cowl variations in circulation for the reason that 60s retains Jobim related globally amongst jazz and pop musicians. While Jobim will without end be related to the Bossa Nova type he helped create alongside Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto, his legacy can’t be contained in a single style.
Born right into a middle-class household in Rio de Janeiro, the younger Jobim performed piano in bars and nightclubs earlier than graduating into the bustling Rio recording business within the mid-’50s. In 1956, he teamed up with poet and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes to jot down the music for the play Orfeu da Conceição, which later grew to become hit arthouse movie Black Orpheus in 1959. It was round this time that João Gilberto confirmed up in Rio with a revolutionary new type that might quickly be dubbed Bossa Nova, with Jobim’s compositions fueling Gilberto’s profession in these early years.
Listen to the most effective Antonio Carlos Jobim songs on Apple Music and Spotify.
The Bossa Nova introduced Jobim to the US in 1962 the place he stayed on and off for the remainder of his life, recording albums for Verve, Warner Brothers, Reprise, A&M/CTI, MCA, and Columbia in addition to a handful of duet and ensemble albums launched solely in Brazil. Beyond his signature tune, “The Girl from Ipanema,” Jobim penned a majority of the best-known Brazilian songs to crossover into worldwide pop and jazz.
As a composer, arranger, pianist, and vocalist, Antonio Carlos Jobim might be heard on not solely his personal recordings, but additionally shut collaborators and duet companions like Frank Sinatra, Elis Regina, and Sergio Mendes. Picking merely 20 songs to summarize his profession is an not possible job, however the next recordings (all Jobim compositions) are a few of the greatest variations of his songs.
Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Breakthrough Bossa Nova Songs
(“A Felicidade,” “Chega de Saudade,” “One Note Samba,” “Insensatez (How Insensitive),” “The Girl from Ipanema”)
The Rio de Janeiro music scene that birthed the Bossa Nova was awful with proficient composers like Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, Baden Powell, João Donato, and extra, however it could not be hyperbole to think about a “Greatest Hits of Bossa Nova” composed completely of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s greatest songs. That’s how a lot his musical presence outlined the period. Between 1958 and 1968 Jobim composed numerous classics.
“A Felicidade” (The Happiness) is certainly one of Jobim’s most iconic tunes that memorably anchors the movie Black Orpheus. If you haven’t seen the film, do your self a favor and indulge in its technicolor marvel and sensible soundtrack. Historians pinpoint the primary music containing all the parts that outline Bossa Nova as Elizeth Cardoso’s recording of the Jobim-De Moraes composition “Chega de Saudade” (No More Blues) with João Gilberto on guitar and Jobim on piano and preparations from 1958. Within a couple of years of João Gilberto’s debut album in 1958, his imported albums traded fingers amongst the hippest jazz gamers in New York and Los Angeles, resulting in the flautist Herbie Mann’s 1962 journey to report in Rio de Janeiro the place he invited Jobim to sing (for the primary time on wax) on his personal music, “One Note Samba.”
Later that yr Jobim starred in Bossa Nova’s popping out social gathering at Carnegie Hall. He stayed within the US and began his solo recording profession in 1963 together with his instrumental album for Verve, together with the basic “Insensatez (Insensitive)” together with his signature spare piano taking part in. The album additionally marked the start of a decades-long partnership with arranger Claus Ogerman. “The Girl from Ipanema” in its iconic rendition by João Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, and Stan Getz was recorded later in 1963 and featured Jobim once more on piano, however wasn’t launched till 1964 and earned a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1965.
The Stateside Songs
(“Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado),” “Bonita,” “Surfboard,” “Desafinado,” “Stone Flower”)
The runaway success of “The Girl from Ipanema” solidified Antonio Carlos Jobim’s worldwide profession. He wrote all however two songs of the songs on the total size from which the hit emerged, Getz/Gilberto, together with the beloved ode to the Rio de Janeiro peak upon which the large Christ statue stands: “Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars (Corcovado).” By the mid-’60s Jobim was a scorching commodity within the US, securing him a profitable recording profession within the US with Warner, first with red-velvet romantic tunes just like the English-language Bossa Nova “Bonita.”
His 1967 album encompasses a new batch of on the spot classics just like the easy-listening rerecording of “Surfboard” with assist from organist Dick Hyman and preparations by Claus Ogerman. Jobim tackles certainly one of his most excellent tunes, “Off Key (Desafinado)” together with his charmingly imperfect voice and the buoyant help of Ogerman’s hovering association.
After leaving Warner Brothers, Jobim expanded his musical imaginative and prescient for his subsequent three albums recorded for A&M/CTI with longer compositions, extra jazz musicians, and a extra cinematic type. “Stone Flower,” the title monitor from his 1970 album is an ideal instance of this subsequent part in his profession, a moody baião rhythm from the northeast of Brazil anchored by Ron Carter on bass and Airto Moreira on percussion. This new sound appealed to an entire new technology of music lovers, like Carlos Santana who selected to cowl this music a couple of years later.
Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Duets & Collaborations
(“Ela é Carioca,” “Água de Beber,” “Dindi,” “Águas de Março,” “Samba do Soho”)
Antonio Carlos Jobim didn’t simply compose basic songs, he typically concerned himself within the recordings of his songs by buddies and fellow musicians each in Brazil and within the US. Before he’d change into a minor celeb within the States, he organized a few of his songs for his mentee, Sergio Mendes’ sensible samba-jazz album launched in 1964, together with a jazzy model of “Ela E Carioca.” Riding the wave of “The Girl From Ipanema”, unsuspecting star vocalist Astrud Gilberto discovered herself recording for Verve. For her first album in 1965, she leaned on Jobim for songs, ethical help, some background vocals, and piano, most superbly on his tune, “Água de Beber.”
1967 was an excellent yr for Jobim with three albums bearing his identify, together with his historic collaboration with Frank Sinatra. While the second of Jobim’s album-length collaborations with The Chairman wasn’t formally launched throughout both of their lifetimes, it’s value noting that Sinatra by no means devoted a couple of album to a specific composer apart from Jobim. “Dindi” completely fits Sinatra’s languid supply with Jobim’s mild guitar urging the singer alongside. Their first collaboration obtained a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 1968.
Recorded in 1973 in Los Angeles, Elis & Tom is worthy of all of the accolades if just for their duet model on certainly one of Jobim’s biggest songs, “Águas de Março,” or “Waters of March.” Not in contrast to the vocal simpatico between Louis Armstrong & Ella Fitzgerald, Jobim and Regina have a scrumptious vocal chemistry and as soon as it’s married to a masterwork of composition, “Aguas de Março” turns into one of many biggest performances ever dedicated to tape. Relocating to New York, “Samba do Soho” is an effervescent composition from his 1987 album, Passarim.
The Moody Movements
(“Valsa de Porto Das Caixas,” “Wave,” “Children’s Game,” “Sabiá,” “Ligia”)
Antonio Carlos Jobim cited Debussy and Ravel alongside the Brazilian composers Ary Barosso and Heitor Villa-Lobos as a few of his main influences. These 5 songs show his classical lineage and skill to conjure a temper, whether or not it’s pensiveness (“Valsa de Porto das Caixas”), nostalgia (“Wave”), naivety (“Children’s Game”), melancholy (“Sabía”), or craving (“Ligia”).
Jobim snuck “Valsa de Porto das Caixas,” a wonderful, spare instrumental ballad onto his first album for Warner Brothers, wedged between future bossa nova requirements. Lacking each drums and guitar, this contemporary basic composition is delivered to life by simply flute, cello, and piano. “Wave” is certainly one of Jobim’s most celebrated songs, a joyous instrumental that later gained lyrics and numerous cowl variations. On the 1967 album of the identical identify, Jobim first manifested his grander imaginative and prescient for his music, transferring away from jazz and pop and nearer to classical recordings with a big string part and masterful arranger and conductor in Claus Ogerman.
“Children’s Game” was initially written for the big-budget flop, The Adventurers, however the model he recorded for his personal album, Stone Flower, is superior with its dreamy piano and playful percussion conjuring-up school-yard rhymes and childhood whimsy. Jobim collaborated with quite a lot of totally different lyricists through the years, together with Chico Buarque de Hollanda, who wrote the lyrics to “Sabía,” referring to Brazil’s nationwide hen (a sort of thrush) whereas exiled in Italy in 1968.
“Ligia” is a devastating torch ballad with an beautiful association by Claus Ogerman (but once more) that wears its heartbreak on its sleeve – it’s a disgrace Frank Sinatra by no means recorded this one. Recorded for his 1976 album Urubu, “Ligia” is one other Jobim tune to earn commonplace standing with its numerous variations recorded in Brazil and past.
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