Antonio Carlos Jobim
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 Vinícius de Moraes 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 João 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 ambience. 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.
© Richard S. Ginell /TiVo
Similar artists
-
The Girl from Ipanema
Jazz - Released by Music City Entertainment on 19 jun. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O Morro Não Tem Vez
Wereldmuziek - Released by Chord Concept on 9 jan. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ipanema Girls
Pop - Released by Studio Masters Rec. on 4 aug. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Greatest Hits Of Antônio Carlos Jobim
Wereldmuziek - Released by Glory Days Records on 13 feb. 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orfeu Da Conceição
Samba - Released by Music Manager on 21 nov. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivo Sonhando Dreamer
Pop - Released by Jazz Ballroom Records on 12 apr. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Orfeu da Conceição (Original 1956 Album - Digitally Remastered)
Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes, Roberto Paiva
Originele soundtracks - Released by Podium on 15 mrt. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Antonio Carlos Jobim Com Nelson Riddle E Sua Orquestra
Antonio Carlos Jobim, Nelson Riddle E Sua Orquestra
Bossa Nova - Released by Universal Music Ltda. on 1 mrt. 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Brasília: Sinfonia da Alvorada (Suite for the Opening Ceremony of the New City of Brasilia, April 1960)
Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes
Brazil - Released by Poppydisc on 28 apr. 1960
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Orfeu da Conceição
Vinicius De Moraes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Roberto Paiva
Soundtracks - Released by Hits Forever Records on 3 jun. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Best Of Antonio Carlos Jobim
Divers - Released by Bossa Nova Legends on 20 mrt. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jobim & Gilberto
Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto
Wereldmuziek - Released by Foggy Milan Records on 31 mrt. 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Agua de Beber
Wereldmuziek - Released by Toucan Music on 10 jun. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Descendo O Morro
Wereldmuziek - Released by Eminent Legacy Records on 18 sep. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Meditação
Wereldmuziek - Released by Toucan Music on 10 jun. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chega de Saudade
Wereldmuziek - Released by Toucan Music on 10 jun. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Devil Bike
Jazz - Released by The Most Wanted Hits 2020 on 15 sep. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Sinfonia Do Rio De Janeiro
Samba - Released by Music Manager on 22 jun. 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo