Tom Jobim is receiving the Lifetime Achievemnt Award at the Grammys today.
I've been hearing Jobim's music since I was a little boy when I lived in Brazil. I've just returned from Rio de Janeiro 2 weeks ago and saw a new documentary about him (A Música Segundo Tom Jobim) that's playing in theaters there right now. Beautiful stuff, you can see the likes of Sinatra, Sarah Vaughan, Jane Monheit, Krall, Gilberto, Elis Regina with Jobim himself and many many more performing Jobim's songs.
No doubt Brazil's greatest composer.
He did score movies but I'm not familiar with them except Orfeu Negro and The Adventurers.
His music means to me more than words can express.
I'm just super happy his work is being recognized.
Jobim is an absolute genius of 20th Century music. He is part of an exclusive fraternity including Ellington, Morricone, Charlie Parker, and one or two others.
Actually there's so much information in it that I think people not familiar with his work can be pretty overwhelmed. I haven't even seen a fraction of the gems and rare stuff available here.
By coincidence I was talking to a Brazilian this weekend about him. It's hard to over-estimate how revered Tom Jobim is in his home country. This is a well-deserved honour.
There is some Jobim film music on his regular albums. There are cues from "The Adventurers" on "Tide"(A&M) and "Stone Flower"(CTI). Music from Brazilian films like "Porto das Caixas", "Tempo do Mar" and "Crónica da Casa Assasinada" can be found on the albums "The Wonderful World of Antonio Carlos Jobim"(WB) and "Jobim" (MCA). There are also the original soundtrack recordings of "Garota de Ipanema", "Black Orpheus", The Adventurers", "Gabriela" and "Para Viver um Grande Amor".
He was known mainly as a songwriter- surely one of the top ones of the past century- but he also wrote symphonic and chamber music. His "Sinfonia da Alvorada", written for the inauguration of Brazil's capital city, Brasilia, is a masterpiece.
There are times when I hear Jobim's music that I feel that he WAS the 1960s. So powerful is the pull and spirit of the man's music. I get more images--probably fantasies of how it was--in my mind about the 1960s whenever I hear his work.
My favorite Jobim album is The Composer of Desafinado Plays, from 1963. On the surface it sounds like an easy listening album, but the album creates an amazing atmosphere. There's also some magnificent soloing there, with trombonist Jimmy Cleveland and Jobim himself on piano with stunning contributions.
Jobim is an absolute genius of 20th Century music. He is part of an exclusive fraternity including Ellington, Morricone, Charlie Parker, and one or two others.
No Alex North, John Mclaughlin, Don Ellis, or Jaco, OB. Tsk tsk. :-D
ACJ's influence is noticeable in some others of my favorites from Brazil: Flora Purim, and Airto Moreira. And his records w Stan Getz are "the tops."
