Antônio Carlos Jobim
‘Brazil is not for beginners.’ — words widely attributed to Jobim
At a glance 🔭💭
Some coordinates adapted from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) · Pleiades (CC BY 3.0)
Collaborators ⏳🌊
- InfluenceHeitor Villa-Lobos
Jobim revered this composer, who poured Brazil's forests and folklore into the orchestra, as a lifelong master.
- TeacherHans-Joachim Koellreutter
A composer who had fled Germany in exile, he taught the teenage Jobim piano and music theory.
- CollaboratorVinicius de Moraes
They met in 1956 over “Orfeu da Conceição,” and he became Jobim's lifelong lyricist, writing words for “The Girl from Ipanema” and countless other songs.
- CollaboratorJoão Gilberto
The singer and guitarist who, with a single guitar and a hushed voice, turned Jobim's songs into bossa nova.
- ColleagueStan Getz
The tenor saxophonist who, with “Jazz Samba” and “Getz/Gilberto,” carried Jobim's songs to the heart of American jazz.
- ColleagueFrank Sinatra
In 1967 he personally invited Jobim to record an album together, embracing his songs as classics of the American songbook.
I. The boy from Tijuca · 1927–1944 (age 0–17)
(Birth) He was born in January 1927 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His birthplace was Tijuca, a residential district in the north of the city, and his full name was Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim. Family and friends called him Tom. His father, Jorge de Oliveira Jobim, was an intellectual who worked as a diplomat and wrote and taught; his mother was Nilza Brasileiro de Almeida. In 1931 his younger sister Helena was born. Helena would later become a writer and the author of her brother's biography. (Separation) His parents separated when he was small, and his father died in 1935. To support the family his mother founded and ran a school, and she remarried, to Celso Frota Pessoa. His stepfather indulged the boy's interest in music, and the piano he brought into the house became his first instrument. Jobim remained grateful to his stepfather all his life, Helena wrote in the biography. (Ipanema) The family moved to Ipanema, then a quiet seaside village. The boy roamed the sands, the lagoon and the wooded hills, learning the names of birds and trees. The sea and forest of those years would return again and again in the titles and harmonies of his songs. (Teachers) In his early teens he studied piano and music theory with Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, a composer who had come to Brazil as an exile from Germany. Koellreutter was the man who introduced Brazil to the avant-garde method of composing with all twelve tones used evenly. Later he also studied with Lúcia Branco and Tomás Terán. He loved the music of Villa-Lobos, Debussy and Ravel deeply, and he grew up listening as well to the sambas and choros pouring out of the radio. The subtle harmonies of classical music and the rhythms of the street, these two strands, settled side by side in his ear early on.
II. The pianist of the night · 1945–1955 (age 18–28)
(Architecture) As a young man Jobim entered architecture school but soon dropped out. Working in a design office had not suited him, he recalled. His resolve to make a living from music quickly brought the weight of everyday life. (Marriage) In 1949 he married Thereza Otero Hermanny, and their first child was born the following year. The couple had two children. Now the head of a household, he played piano night after night in the bars and nightclubs of Copacabana. He remembered those years, when he alternated American songs by Gershwin and Cole Porter with Brazilian sambas to suit the customers' requests, as exhausting but rich in lessons. (Scores) From around 1952 he worked for the Continental record label. His first assignment was to take down on staff paper the songs hummed by composers who could not read or write music, producing scores for copyright registration. At the side of the arranger Radamés Gnattali, the label's music director, he learned on the job how to handle an orchestra (arranging). (Cool jazz) Around this time the young musicians of Rio were tuning their ears to the calm jazz of the American West Coast. Gerry Mulligan's unadorned ensembles and Chet Baker's low, quiet singing captivated them. This way of singing in a near whisper rather than a shout would, a few years later, come to closely resemble the vocal style of bossa nova. (First success) In 1954 “Tereza da Praia”, written with Billy Blanco, became a hit for the singers Dick Farney and Lúcio Alves. That same year he and Blanco also released “Sinfonia do Rio de Janeiro”, which wove together orchestra and song. The feel for song he had absorbed in the clubs at night and the orchestral craft he had learned in the studio by day came together for the first time.
III. The birth of bossa nova · 1956–1961 (age 29–34)
(Vinicius) In 1956 he met the poet and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes. Vinicius hoped to stage “Orfeu da Conceição”, a play that moved the Greek myth of Orpheus to a favela on a Rio hillside, and he entrusted the music to Jobim. The production opened that September at the Theatro Municipal, beginning the two men's long collaboration. (João) While working as an arranger at the Odeon label, he met João Gilberto, a guitarist and singer from Bahia. João had a distinctive technique that distilled samba's many percussion rhythms into the thumb and fingers of a single guitar. In 1958 João played guitar on the singer Elizeth Cardoso's record “Canção do Amor Demais”, and in July of that year “Chega de Saudade” was recorded in João's own voice. It was the starting point of the music that would later be called bossa nova (meaning 'new trend'). (Newton) With the pianist Newton Mendonça he wrote “Desafinado” and “Samba de Uma Nota Só”. Desafinado means 'out of tune', and the song is taken as a witty reply to critics who disparaged the new music for its shaky intonation. Mendonça died in 1960 at the age of thirty-three. (Film) “Orfeu” was reborn as “Black Orpheus”, a film by the French director Marcel Camus. Featuring songs by Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, the film won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and, the following year, the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1960 he wrote, with Vinicius, “Brasília, Sinfonia da Alvorada”, celebrating the inauguration of the new capital, Brasília. His range, moving among stage music, song and symphonic work, was already evident in this period.
Arranged by Jobim and sung by João Gilberto, this single was the moment when the harmonies of a classically trained composer first locked together with a samba rhythm pared down to a single guitar. As its title, meaning 'enough longing', suggests, it is the calm monologue of a narrator hoping that someone who left will come back.
- The first part of the song flows in a dark minor key, then the second part crosses into the bright major on the same tonic. The change of key lays bare the feeling of longing turning into the hope of waiting.
- João's guitar keeps the bass notes steady with the thumb while the other fingers clip the chords slightly ahead of or behind the beat (syncopation). Known as the batida (striking), this technique became the prototype of the bossa nova rhythm.
- The voice uses almost no vibrato (the technique of making a note waver) and flows low, as if speaking. It is the exact opposite of the radio singers of the day, who pushed their emotions out at full volume.
- Jobim's arrangement merely slips brief phrases of flute and strings between the vocal lines and never steps forward. The story goes that the session dragged on because João insisted on separate microphones for his voice and his guitar.
IV. Winter in New York · 1962–1966 (age 35–39)
(Jazz samba) In 1962 “Jazz Samba”, released by the tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and the guitarist Charlie Byrd, sold enormously in the United States. Its “Desafinado” became a hit single, and American jazz musicians rushed to record bossa nova. (Carnegie Hall) That November a bossa nova concert was held at Carnegie Hall in New York. Jobim is said to have hesitated a long time over whether to appear. The staging was chaotic, but the concert introduced Brazil's new music to the American music world, and afterward he stayed in New York for months at a time to work. (Ipanema) That same year he wrote “The Girl from Ipanema” with Vinicius. Both men recalled that their inspiration was a girl who walked past a bar in Ipanema. On “Getz/Gilberto”, recorded in New York in March 1963, Jobim played piano, and with Astrud Gilberto's voice singing in English the song went around the world. That year the trumpeter Miles Davis also included his “Corcovado” on “Quiet Nights”, made with the arranger Gil Evans. (Home) In 1964 a military coup took place in Brazil. By then his songs were sweeping the American charts and the Grammy Awards, and royalties made his life comfortable for the first time. Yet amid the cold and clamor of New York he sorely missed the sea and forests of Rio, Helena wrote. Critics often link that longing to how unusually quiet and restrained his own recordings from that period are.
During his time in New York, Jobim took part in this recording as pianist and composer. In the meeting of Stan Getz's tenor and João's whispered singing, bossa nova became American music.
- In “The Girl from Ipanema”, João sings first in Portuguese and Astrud takes over in English. It is the song of a narrator gazing wistfully from afar at a girl walking along the beach, and both singers use an even voice that reveals no emotion.
- Getz's tenor saxophone, soft and breathy, follows the melody almost note for note, then gradually adds ornaments. It is a solo that wins on the tone of long notes rather than on flashy fast runs.
- Jobim's piano solo picks out only a few notes, as if played with one finger. The space between those sparse notes keeps the whole track still.
- It was recorded in March 1963 at A&R Studios in New York by the producer Creed Taylor and the engineer Phil Ramone. For the single, João's Portuguese section was cut to make a shorter edit, and that version became a huge radio hit.
- Milton Banana on drums sweeps the snare with brushes instead of sticks, laying down the samba rhythm very softly. At no point does the rhythm section ring louder than the song.
This was the first album under his own name, released while he stayed in New York after the Carnegie Hall concert. With no vocals, only piano, guitar and strings, the composer himself presents his own songs.
- In “One Note Samba”, the harmony beneath keeps changing while the melody lingers on a single note. You can hear the same note take on different colors as the chords shift.
- Claus Ogerman's string arrangements lay down long-held chords as a floor, and Jobim's piano floats the melody above them. His long collaboration with Ogerman began on this album.
- Jobim's piano lets the melody be heard clearly, note by note, rather than showing off technique. Many have described it as playing in which the composer stands in front of the performer.
- Above the basic three notes, the chords carry added notes such as the ninth·eleventh (tensions). They are colors that his ear, in love with Debussy and Ravel, brought into Brazilian song.
V. Songs of forest and birds · 1967–1979 (age 40–52)
(Sinatra) In early 1967 Frank Sinatra personally invited him to Hollywood to record an album together. Over Claus Ogerman's strings, Sinatra sang far more softly than usual, while Jobim played guitar and added harmonies in Portuguese. That same year he also made the instrumental album “Wave” with the producer Creed Taylor. (Sabiá) In 1968 “Sabiá”, written with the poet and singer Chico Buarque, won the International Song Festival. The sabiá is a Brazilian thrush, and the song carries the longing of someone far from home who yearns to return. The audience, expecting a forthright song of protest against the military regime, booed at the final. Jobim generally kept his distance from political slogans, but the episode is said to have stayed with him a long time. (Nature) In the 1970s he spent long stretches at Poço Fundo, a country house in the mountains outside Rio. He could rattle off the names and calls of birds, and he spoke out angrily as the Atlantic coastal forest was cut down. There in 1972, watching the March rains, he wrote “Águas de Março”, and on the following year's album “Matita Perê” and 1976's “Urubu”, the names of forest birds and rivers became track titles. (Elis) In 1974 he recorded “Elis & Tom” in Los Angeles with the singer Elis Regina. Made by two people of very different temperaments, the record has endured as a landmark of Brazilian popular music. (Habits) He loved talking for hours with friends in bars, and for many years he enjoyed whisky and cigarettes. He was famous for his sociable, witty conversation, but those close to him recalled that he never fully overcame his fear of flying and of big stages.
The album in which the biggest voice in American popular song came looking for a Brazilian composer. For Jobim, it was a sign that his songs had been welcomed into the very heart of the American songbook.
- Sinatra sets aside his usual powerful delivery and sings in a near whisper. He reportedly joked that he hadn't sung this softly since he'd had laryngitis.
- Jobim lays down the bossa nova rhythm on guitar and adds harmonies in Portuguese on songs such as “The Girl from Ipanema”. The low grain of the two voices overlaps until they sound like a single timbre.
- Among seven Brazilian songs are three American songs by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others, recast in bossa nova rhythm. It is worth listening side by side to hear how naturally American standards fit this rhythm.
- Claus Ogerman's arrangement uses strings and flute very sparingly so that they stay behind the voice. The recording took place over three days in Hollywood in early 1967.
An instrumental album made with producer Creed Taylor the same year as the Sinatra sessions. His lyricism, painting the sea and the wind, unfolds wordlessly, in harmony alone.
- The title track opens with the bass stepping down, one low note at a time. Above it the harmonies slide by half steps, like a tide washing in and drawing back.
- Trombone, flute and strings share the melody among them, wrapping around Jobim's piano and guitar. There is never a hard collision; the instruments take turns stepping forward and falling back.
- Ron Carter's bass gently supports the low pulse of the samba while moving as melodically as a jazz bass line. It is the point where Brazilian rhythm and jazz feeling meet.
- It was recorded at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey. Though an instrumental record without singing, several of its tunes went on to become standards for jazz players.
“Waters of March,” written at his country house in Poço Fundo, survived as a duet with Elis Regina. A composer who loved forests and rain met an explosive singer, and together they made a landmark of Brazilian popular music.
- “Waters of March” is a song like a list, naming things one by one — a stick, a stone, the end of the road. In the March rain that closes the summer, it sets the endings and beginnings of things and of life side by side.
- The two trade short phrases and now and then burst out laughing. The recording keeps even the laughter, adding to the song's playful character.
- The melody circles a handful of notes and barely moves, while beneath it the bass descends one note at a time, changing the harmony. The lyrics, which seem to repeat the same words, and the circling melody mirror each other.
- Elis's voice is clear and firm, locking precisely into the beat. Set against Jobim's rough, low voice, it draws a sharp line between the two personalities.
- It was recorded in 1974 at a studio in Los Angeles, produced by Aloysio de Oliveira and arranged by the pianist César Camargo Mariano.
VI. Antonio the Brazilian · 1980–1994 (age 53–67)
(Tribute) In 1980 he released the album “Terra Brasilis,” and the following year Ella Fitzgerald put out “Ella Abraça Jobim,” a double album made up entirely of his songs. It amounted to a master of the American songbook certifying his songs as standards (the core repertoire played again and again across generations). (Banda Nova) Around 1984 he formed Banda Nova, a band of several singers and players. His son Paulo Jobim played guitar, Jaques Morelenbaum played cello, and women singers formed the chorus. With this band he toured the world, singing his own songs from the piano. Colleagues recalled with amusement that the man who had dreaded the stage in his youth came, in old age, to relish touring. (Remarriage) In 1986 he married the photographer Ana Lontra. The title of the album he released the following year, “Passarim,” means a little bird, and here too the theme of birds and forests he loved all his life carried on. (Friends) In 1993 a concert in his honor was held in São Paulo, where American jazz musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson and Shirley Horn shared the stage. The live recording was released after his death. His last album, “Antonio Brasileiro,” was completed in 1994. (Death) In late 1994 he entered Mount Sinai Hospital in New York for bladder cancer surgery. While recovering, he died of a heart attack on 12 December 8 — on December 8. He was sixty-seven. His body was returned to Rio for burial, and in 1999 Rio's Galeão International Airport was named after him.
Lesser-known stories
Jobim's first step into the music industry was neither composing nor performing. At the Continental record label, his job was to take down the sambas hummed by composers who couldn't read music and turn them into scores for copyright registration. Transcribing countless songs by others, he absorbed the melodic architecture of Brazilian popular song into his body — an experience that, overshadowed by the glamorous bossa nova legend, is mentioned only as a footnote in his biography. Contrary to the impression abroad that remembers him only as the composer of romantic songs about Ipanema, he never let go of his dream of symphonic work. The traces are there: the “Sinfonia do Rio de Janeiro” of 1954, “Brasília, Sinfonia da Alvorada” for the new capital in 1960, and the orchestral pieces on the B-side of the 1976 album “Urubu.” Rarely performed compared to his hits, these works remain little known. The English lyrics of “Waters of March” were written not by another lyricist but by Jobim himself. In the Southern Hemisphere March is the season when summer ends, but in the Northern Hemisphere it is when spring arrives, so he reshaped the imagery of the English version to suit the northern seasons. It shows how much care he took over the way his songs were translated. He was serious about birdwatching. He knew the names and calls of countless birds, and in interviews he even defended the urubu — the vulture that gave the album “Urubu” its title — as a welcome creature that cleans the forest. The names of birds, rivers and trees that recur in his album and song titles grew out of this interest, yet it survives mostly in Brazilian interviews and biographies rather than in music criticism.
Notes on terms 📚🔎
Bossa nova
(Literally) In Portuguese, bossa means a knack or a tendency, and nova means new. Together they mean a new tendency, a new flair. (In jazz) A Brazilian music born in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s, which pared the rhythm of samba down to a single guitar and laid over it delicate harmonies drawn from jazz and classical music. The singing never shouts; it is quiet, almost spoken. Take a rowdy field-day cheer and sing it softly to your deskmate in the classroom, and the rhythm stays alive while the mood changes completely — that is roughly what bossa nova did to samba. (Elsewhere) In Brazil, beyond music, it was also used in everyday speech for a new, stylish way of doing things, or for wit.
Samba
(In jazz) A music and dance that grew in Brazil from the dances and drum rhythms of Afro-Brazilian people. Many percussion instruments beat out different rhythms at once to create a bouncing feel, and every year it leads Rio's Carnival parades. If a whole class splits up clapping, stamping and drumming on desks, each doing something different, and plays all at once, each part is simple but together they make a complex rhythm — that is exactly how the percussion of a samba band piles up its sound. (Elsewhere) In dancesport, it refers to a ballroom dance event derived from Brazilian samba.
Syncopation
(Literally) The English word syncopation comes from Greek and carries the sense of cutting off or shortening. This fits the nature of the technique, which cuts the natural accent of the beat and moves it elsewhere. (In jazz) A rhythmic technique that leaves the normally strong beat empty and puts weight where a weak beat would usually slip by. The listener's expectation is slightly thrown off, and the body starts to move. Like clapping while jumping rope not when the rope hits the ground but in between — the beat stays the same, yet with the accent displaced the rhythm becomes far livelier. João Gilberto's guitar chops its chords on exactly these offbeats. (Elsewhere) In medicine, it is used to mean syncope — fainting, losing consciousness and collapsing.
Arrangement
(Literally) The Korean word pyeongok (編曲) is written with pyeon (編), 'to weave together', and gok (曲), 'song'. It means to weave an existing song anew. (In jazz) The work of deciding, on the basis of the melody and harmony a composer has written, which instrument plays what and when, and of building the introduction, interludes and ending. Depending on the arrangement, the same song can become a small piece for solo piano or music for a large orchestra. Just as one cook tops kimchi fried rice with cheese and another with a fried egg, the same song tastes different depending on the arranger. Jobim worked for years with arrangers such as Claus Ogerman, and was himself an accomplished arranger. (Elsewhere) In everyday speech, it is also used as a metaphor for refashioning an original, as when adapting a story.
Tension
(Literally) The English word tension means a state of being pulled taut — that is, strain. (In jazz) A note such as D or F added on top of a chord built from three basic notes like C·E·G, giving the chord a subtle tension and color. It catches the ear slightly but is not unpleasant, making the chord richer and more dreamlike. Drop a few beads of sesame oil on plain white rice and the rice is unchanged, yet the aroma is transformed — that is what a tension does to a chord. These notes are a large part of why Jobim's songs sound so deep despite their simple melodies. (Elsewhere) In everyday speech, it commonly refers to a sense of strain, a nervy atmosphere, or an excited mood.
Standard
(Literally) The English word standard means a norm or benchmark. (In jazz) A tune that has been played and sung so often, by so many players and singers over so many years, that it has become basic repertoire every jazz musician knows. Many began as songs from musicals or films. Just as everyone everywhere sings the same birthday song, yet each person sings it a little differently, a standard is known to all — which is precisely what makes comparing each performer's interpretation so enjoyable. “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Corcovado” became the best-known jazz standards to come from Brazil. (Elsewhere) In everyday speech, it refers to a standard specification or an ordinary basic model.