Antonio Carlos Jobim
From the superfine sands of Ipanema, we have gathered a cornucopia of suave-defining
tunes by the ‘60s king of bossa nova himself, Antonio Carlos Jobim,
guaranteed to cool you down and raise your spirit. Often hailed as the Gershwin
of Brazil, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s songs like ‘Desafinado’,
‘Corvovado’, ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ and ‘One
Note Samba’ have become standards of the jazz repertoire. Their graceful,
gently swinging melodies and harmonies have since the ‘60s given musicians
a strikingly original alternative to the more traditional Tin Pan Alley
sources. A sensitive arranger, pianist, guitarist and singer, Jobim has
made a significant contribution to the music of the 20th Century, both as
a songwriter and musician.| 1 |
She's a carioca |  |
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2. |
Agua de beber | ||
| 3. |
Surfboard |  |
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4. |
Bonita | ||
| 5. |
A Felicidade |  |
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6. |
Favela | ||
| 7. |
Hurry up and love me (preciso de voce) |  |
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8. |
Berimbau | ||
| 9. |
Neptune's hep tune (morte de undeus de jal) |  |
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10. |
The face I love (seu encanto) | ||
11. |
Pardon my English (samba torto) | |
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12. |
Off key (desafinado) | ||
13. |
Once again (outra vez) | |
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14. |
Correnteza (the stream) | ||
15. |
Boto (porpoise) | |
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16. |
Quiet nights of quiet stars | ||
17. |
The girl from Ipanema | |
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| 18. |
Double Rainbow | ||
| 19. |
One note samba | |
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| 20. |
Someone to light up my life (se todos fossem iguais a voce) |
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| TOP | |||
| Welcome back, hep cats and kittens, to
The Leopard Lounge, where from the superfine sands of Ipanema, we
have gathered a cornucopia of suave-defining tunes by the ‘60s
king of bossa nova himself, Antonio Carlos Jobim, guaranteed to cool
you down and raise your spirit. A blend of Brazil’s samba with the jazz being played on the American West Coast in the late ‘50s, bossa nova, initially set in motion by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Joao Gilberto, was rapidly embraced by musicians everywhere. By the early ‘60s, with the help of Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s recording of ‘Desafinado (Off Key)’, a Jobim and Gilberto composition, bossa nova had spread all over the world, in pop music, film soundtracks, and to the United States, where it produced a major craze. With ‘Desafinado’ riding high on the American charts, the music industry, hungry for novelty, exploited bossa nova as a new dance trend like the twist or the mambo, generating enough bubble gum pop records to wax the Sugarloaf Mountain over and over, some of them bossa only by name. Bossa nova’s sensual rhythms and gliding melodies were also an open invitation to improvisation for jazz musicians. Many, including Herbie Mann (an early convert to bossa nova, who had gone to Rio in 1962 to record with Gilberto and Jobim), Shorty Rogers, Jon Hendricks, and even Miles Davis, dedicated whole albums to this new style. While the pop fad passed away quickly, the strongest bossa nova recordings, often fuelled by Jobim’s songs like ‘One Note Samba’, and ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ (inspired by local damsel Heloisa Eneida’s charming gait, much-admired by Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes), mostly collaborations between American and Brazilian musicians, were made after 1963. Often hailed as the Gershwin of Brazil, Antonio Carlos Jobim’s songs like ‘Desafinado’, ‘Corvovado’, ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ and ‘One Note Samba’ have become standards of the jazz repertoire. Their graceful, gently swinging melodies and harmonies have since the ‘60s given musicians a strikingly original alternative to the more traditional Tin Pan Alley sources. A sensitive arranger, pianist, guitarist and singer, Jobim has made a significant contribution to the music of the 20th Century, both as a songwriter and musician. Born in Tijuca, a neighbourhood of Rio, in 1927, Antonio Carlos Jobim (nicknamed Tom Jobim in Brazil), began his professional life as an architect while playing the piano in nightclubs and working in recording studios. In 1954 he made his first record as a sideman (Tom and His Band for Bill Far), and by 1956 he had found fame by co-writing the score to the play Orfeu do Carnaval (later made into the famous film Black Orpheus) with poet Vinicius de Moraes and Luis Bonfa. Two years later, Joao Gilberto’s (then unknown) recordings of Jobim’s songs like ‘Chega De Saudade’ launched bossa nova, but Jobim’s major international break came in 1962, when Getz and Byrd’s ‘Desafinado’ hit the American charts, and he was invited, along with several other key Brazilian musicians, to perform at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Jobim released his first album as a leader the following year for Verve, and signed to Warner Bros. in 1965 for a string of albums which many see as his best work. The Wonderful World Of Antonio Carlos Jobim, his label debut of the same year, paired him with Nelson Riddle, one of Sinatra’s favourite arranger, and featured him as a singer for the first time. Boasting English versions of his songs, translated by award-winning lyricist Ray Gilbert like ‘She’s A Carioca’ (a Rio De Janeiro girl), a follow up to ‘The Girl From Ipanema’, and ‘Bonita’, the album also includes the carefree, flute-driven ‘Agua De Beber, the graceful instrumental ‘Surfboard’ and the bewitching samba rhythms of ‘A Felicidad’ and ‘Favela’. Jobim returned to Rio for his 1966 LP Love, Strings And Jobim, recording with local musicians and instruments like panderia and cabaca, along with guitars, flutes, brass and strings. The result: the ravishing ‘Hurry Up And Love Me’, the percussive ‘Berimbau’, along with English translations of Brazilian classics by the likes of Roberto Menescal (‘Neptune’s Hep Tune – Morte De Undeus De Jal’) and Marvos Valle (‘The Face I Love – Seu Encanto’). In 1967, fresh from a studio session with Frank Sinatra in California, Jobim flew to New York to cut his third album for Warner Bros., A Certain Mr Jobim. A collaboration with arranger / conductor and friend Claus Ogerman, who wrote beautiful scores for Jobim’s intimate style and melodies, the album includes a new take on ‘Desafinado’, delivered with vulnerability and tenderness, along with ‘Once Again (Outra Vez)’. At the dawn of the ‘70s, Jobim recorded several sides for the A&M, CTI and MCA labels, before returning to Warner Bros. in 1976l. Urubu, named after the urubu vulture, contains some of his most complex and uncompromising work, sang mostly in Portuguese, perhaps reflecting his desire to confront the military dictatorship then in power in Brazil, who had him imprisoned in 1970, along with Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso and Vinicius de Moraes. Focussed on nature and ecology, the album features compositions like ‘Bôto’ (The Beach Porpoise) and ‘Correnteza (The Stream)’. A tribute to his home land, 1980’s Terra Brasilis saw Jobim revisiting many of his earlier compositions, including ‘Corcovado’, ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ and ‘One Note Samba’, with Aloysio Oliveira in the producer’s chair and arrangements by Claus Ogerman. MINNIE ‘MINX’ MEHARI Copacabana, Ipanema, New York, London 2006 |
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