# Antonio Carlos Jobim was the George Gershwin of Brazil: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/01/25/antonio-carlos-jobim-was-the-george-gershwin-of-brazil-video/
- Published: 2018-01-25T00:04:44+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**25.01. – Happy Birthday !!! It has been said that Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de
Almeida Jobim was the George Gershwin of Brazil—and there is a solid ring of truth
in that, for both contributed large bodies of songs to the jazz repertoire, both
expanded their reach into the concert hall, and both tend to symbolize their countries
in the eyes of the rest of the world. With their gracefully urbane, sensuously aching
melodies and harmonies, Jobim’s songs gave jazz musicians in the 1960s a quiet, 
strikingly original alternative to their traditional Tin Pan Alley source.**

Jobim’s roots were always planted firmly in jazz; the records of Gerry Mulligan,
Chet Baker, Barney Kessel and other West Coast jazz musicians made an enormous impact
upon him in the 1950s. But he also claimed that the French impressionist composer
Claude Debussy had a decisive influence upon his harmonies, and the Brazilian samba
gave his music a uniquely exotic rhythmic underpinning. As a pianist, he usually
kept things simple and melodically to the point with a touch that reminds some of
Claude Thornhill, but some of his records show that he could also stretch out when
given room. His guitar was limited mostly to gentle strumming of the syncopated 
rhythms, and he sang in a modest, slightly hoarse yet often hauntingly emotional
manner.

Born in the Tijuca neighborhood of Rio, Jobim originally was headed for a career
as an architect. Yet by the time he turned 20, the lure of music was too powerful,
and so he started playing piano in nightclubs and working in recording studios. 
He made his first record in 1954 backing singer Bill Farr as the leader of “Tom 
and His Band” (Tom was Jobim’s lifelong nickname), and he first found fame in 1956
when he teamed up with poet Vinicius de Morales to provide part of the score for
a play called Orfeo do Carnaval (later made into the famous film Black Orpheus).
In 1958, the then-unknown Brazilian singer Joao Gilberto recorded some of Jobim’s
songs, which had the effect of launching the phenomenon known as bossa nova. Jobim’s
breakthrough outside Brazil occurred in 1962 when Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd scored
a surprise hit with his tune “Desafinado”—and later that year, he and several other
Brazilian musicians were invited to participate in a Carnegie Hall showcase. Fueled
by Jobim’s songs, the bossa nova became an international fad, and jazz musicians
jumped on the bandwagon recording album after album of bossa novas until the trend
ran out of commercial steam in the late ’60s.

Jobim himself preferred the recording studios to touring, making several lovely 
albums of his music as a pianist, guitarist and singer for Verve, Warner Bros., 
Discovery, A&M, CTI and MCA in the ’60s and ’70s, and Verve again in the last decade
of his life. Early on, he started collaborating with arranger/conductor Claus Ogerman,
whose subtle, caressing, occasionally moody charts gave his records a haunting ambiance.
When Brazilian music was in its American eclipse after the ’60s, a victim of overexposure
and the burgeoning rock revolution, Jobim retreated more into the background, concentrating
much energy upon film and TV scores in Brazil. But by 1985, as the idea of world
music and a second Brazilian wave gathered steam, Jobim started touring again with
a group containing his second wife Ana Lontra, his son Paulo, daughter Elizabeth
and various musician friends. At the time of his final concerts in Brazil in September
1993 and at Carnegie Hall in April 1994 (both available on Verve), Jobim at last
was receiving the universal recognition he deserved, and a plethora of tribute albums
and concerts followed in the wake of his sudden death in New York City of heart 
failure. Jobim’s reputation as one of the great songwriters of the century is now
secure, nowhere more so than on the jazz scene where every other set seems to contain
at least one bossa nova.

Composer Antonio Carlos Jobim AKA Tom Jobim was born on January 25, 1927 in Tijuca,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He showed a natural curiosity towards music early on and
at age 13 discovered an old piano in his parents’ school and started experimenting
with sounds and notes. Although he took some private piano lessons he was for the
most part self-taught. At age 20 he gave up on his original plans to become an architect
and devoted himself completely to music. He started his career in 1952 playing piano
in small cafes around the city. His early musical influences included the legendary
composer Pixinguinha, Claude Debussy and jazz. In 1954 he cut his first record with
his band called “Tom and His Band” backing the singer Bill Farr. The same year he
apprenticed to arranger Radames Gnatali from whom he learned the rudiments of arranging
and shifted careers and for a while and became an arranger for local singers. In
1956 he collaborated with poet and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes on an operetta entitled
Orfeo do Carnaval that opened to great acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera House in
Rio. The French director Marcel Camus transferred it to the big screen under the
title Black Orpheus. The film was honored by the Cannes Film Festival with a Palme
D’Or in 1959. His first hit was Felicidade from this operetta. The song gained immense
popularity when Billy Eckstine added English lyrics to it in the late 1950s. Moraes
and Jobim also teamed up on other hits including Girl from Ipanema and Agua de Beber
among others. In 1958 Brazilian guitarist and vocalist Joao Gilberto released a 
record of Jobim songs that marked the beginning of the bossa nova phenomenon. 1962
marked an important change in Jobim’s career when he broke out into the world scene
after Stan Getz popularized his tune “Desafinado”. He and his colleagues were invited
to perform at Carnegie Hall and the popularity of the bossa nova took off. From 
1962 till the end of the 60s various jazz musicians recorded multitude of bossa 
nova albums. Jobim himself, in addition to becoming one of the most recorded composers,
cut several albums for a variety of labels often in collaboration with Claus Ogerman.
The 1970s and 80s marked a time of low popularity for jazz and for Brazilian music
due to the rock explosion. Jobim returned to Brazil and worked on TV and film scores.
By 1985 though bossa nova and Brazilian music experienced a renaissance and Jobim
started touring again performing up to few months before his death in New York City
of heart failure on December 8 1994.

![Image result for Antonio Carlos Jobim](https://i0.wp.com/media.npr.org/assets/
img/2017/04/07/sinatra___jobim_1967-frank_sinatra_enterprises_custom-fbf5f90f29667fd1ec6d25196807c9bd96d72e50-
s900-c85.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)

### _Related_