Getz / Gilberto

Stan Getz (born Stanley Gayetski; February 2, 1927 – June 6, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist. Playing primarily the tenor saxophone, Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, with his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott Yanow as "one of the all-time great tenor saxophonists". Getz performed in bebop and cool jazz groups. Influenced by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, he also helped popularize bossa nova in the United States with the hit 1964 single "The Girl from Ipanema".

== Early life ==

Stan Getz was born Stanley Gayetski on February 2, 1927, at St. Vincent's Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Getz's father, Alexander ("Al"), was born in Mile End, London, in 1904; his mother, Goldie (née Yampolsky), was born in Philadelphia in 1907. His paternal grandparents Harris and Beckie Gayetski were originally from Kyiv, Ukraine, but had emigrated to escape the anti-Jewish pogroms to Whitechapel, in the East End of London. While in England, they owned the Harris Tailor Shop at 52 Oxford Street for more than 13 years. In 1914, Harris and Beckie emigrated to the United States with their three sons Al, Phil, and Ben, following several siblings that had recently emigrated there. Getz's original family name, Gayetski, was changed to Getz upon arrival in America.

The Getz family initially settled in Philadelphia but moved to New York City during the Great Depression, seeking better employment opportunities. Getz worked diligently in school, achieving straight A's and finishing sixth grade near the top of his class. His main passion was musical instruments. He began playing various instruments, starting with a harmonica he received at the age of twelve. When he turned thirteen, his father bought him his first saxophone, a $35 alto saxophone. He quickly progressed to playing all types of saxophones and the clarinet. Still, he developed a passion for the tenor saxophone and began practicing for eight hours a day while studying with Bill Shiner, a well-known saxophone teacher in the Bronx. According to Getz, he only had about six months of lessons and never studied music theory or harmony.

Getz attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx. In 1941, he was accepted into the All-City High School Orchestra of New York City, which provided him with the opportunity to receive private, free tutoring from Simon Kovar, a bassoon player with the New York Philharmonic. During this time, he also played the saxophone at dances and bar mitzvahs. He eventually dropped out of school to pursue his musical career but was later sent back to the classroom by truancy officers of the school system.

== Career ==

=== Beginnings ===

In 1943, at the age of 16, he joined Jack Teagarden's band and, because of his youth, he became Teagarden's ward. Getz also played along with Nat King Cole and Lionel Hampton. A period based in Los Angeles with Stan Kenton was brief. Following a comment from Kenton that Getz's main influence, Lester Young, was too simple, Getz quit.

After performing with Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, Getz was a soloist with Woody Herman from 1947 to 1949 in the Second Herd, and he first gained wide attention as one of the band's saxophonists, who were known collectively as "The Four Brothers"; the others being Serge Chaloff, Zoot Sims, and Herbie Steward. With Herman, he had a hit with "Early Autumn" in 1948.

After leaving the Second Herd, Getz was able to launch his solo career. In 1950, he was a guest soloist with Horace Silver's trio at the Club Sundown in Hartford, Connecticut. He subsequently hired them for touring gigs, gaining Silver his earliest national exposure. For an unknown period, he didn't pay Silver, instead using the money due to the pianist to buy heroin. Silver finally left in June 1952. In the same period, Getz performed with pianists Al Haig and Duke Jordan and drummers Roy Haynes and Max Roach, as well as bassist Tommy Potter, all of whom had worked with Charlie Parker. Guitarists Jimmy Raney and Johnny Smith were also associated with the saxophonist in this period. Getz enhanced his profile with his featured performance on Johnny Smith's version of the song "Moonlight in Vermont", recorded in 1952, which became a hit single and stayed on the charts for months. A DownBeat readers' poll voted the single as the second best jazz record of 1952. The later album Moonlight in Vermont, reconfigured from two 10-inch LPs (RLP-410 and RLP-413) for a 12-inch release (LP-2211), was issued in 1956. By 1956, Ben Selvin, bandleader and record producer known as the "Dean of Recorded Music", featured Getz's recordings on national radio networks as part of the RCA Thesaurus transcriptions library.

In 1952, Getz signed with Norman Granz for his labels Clef and Norgran Records, which would be consolidated into Verve Records by 1956. A December 1953 date with Dizzy Gillespie found Getz also in the company of Oscar Peterson, Herb Ellis, Ray Brown, and Max Roach for Diz and Getz, released in 1955. Other notable Getz albums issued by Granz during this time include West Coast Jazz in 1955 and The Steamer in 1957. Getz moved to Copenhagen in 1958. Here, he performed with pianist Jan Johansson and bassist Oscar Pettiford, among others, at the Club Montmartre.

=== Return to United States ===

Returning to the U.S. from Europe in 1961, Getz recorded the album Focus with arrangements by Eddie Sauter, who created a strings backing for the saxophonist. In a March 2021 article for the All About Jazz website, Chris May wrote of it as "one of the great masterpieces of mid-twentieth century jazz" and compared it to the work of Béla Bartók.

Getz became involved in introducing bossa nova music to the American audience teaming with guitarist Charlie Byrd, who had just returned from a U.S. State Department tour of Brazil. In 1962, they recorded the album Jazz Samba featuring their cover of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Desafinado" which became a hit and won Getz the Grammy for Best Jazz Performance of 1963. It sold more than one million copies, and was awarded a gold record. His second bossa nova album, also recorded in 1962, was Big Band Bossa Nova with composer and arranger Gary McFarland. As a follow-up to Jazz Samba, Getz recorded the album Jazz Samba Encore!, with one of the originators of bossa nova, Brazilian guitarist Luiz Bonfá. It also sold more than a million copies by 1964, giving Getz his second gold disc.

He then recorded the album Getz/Gilberto in 1963 with João Gilberto, his wife Astrud, and Antônio Carlos Jobim. A single from the album, "The Girl from Ipanema" became a hit (1964) and won a Grammy Award. Getz/Gilberto won two Grammys (Best Album and Best Single). Getz and producer Creed Taylor claimed that the music's success was a result of their discovery of the talent of Astrud Gilberto, who had never recorded as a vocalist. She and Gilberto and later their son, Marcelo, disputed Getz and Taylor's version of the story, and alleged that Getz contrived it to deprive her of the royalties she was due.

A live album, Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2, followed, as did Getz Au Go Go (1964), a live recording at the Cafe au Go Go in New York City. While working with the Gilbertos, he recorded the jazz album Nobody Else But Me (1964), with a new quartet including vibraphonist Gary Burton, but Verve Records, wishing to continue building the Getz brand with bossa nova, refused to release it until 30 years later, after Getz had died.

In June 1970, he discovered the trio Eddy Louiss on Hammond organ, René Thomas on guitar, and Bernard Lubat on drums playing at the Apollo in Paris. He hired them and toured with this "European group" in Europe, North America, and South America. He recorded the remarkable live album Dynasty with them in March 1971, during a gig at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.

=== Later career ===

In 1972, Getz recorded the jazz fusion album Captain Marvel with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Tony Williams, and in this period experimented with an Echoplex on his saxophone. He had a cameo in the film The Exterminator (1980).

In the mid-1980s, Getz worked regularly in the San Francisco Bay area and taught at Stanford University as an artist-in-residence at the Stanford Jazz Workshop until 1988. In 1986, he was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame. During 1988, Getz worked with Huey Lewis and the News on their Small World album. He played the extended solo on part 2 of the title track, which became a minor hit single.

His tenor saxophone of choice was the Selmer Mark VI.

== Personal life ==

Getz married Beverly Byrne, a vocalist with the Gene Krupa band, on November 7, 1946, in Los Angeles; the couple had three children.

In 1954, Getz held up a Seattle drugstore to obtain narcotics for his heroin addiction. After his arrest he attempted suicide by overdose. He suffered from drug and alcohol dependency on and off for decades. In 1983, he began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly.

Getz divorced Byrne in Mexico in 1956, after which, due to Byrne's own addictions, she was unable to take care of the children. Eventually, the children were awarded by the Court to Getz's second wife, Monica Silfverskiöld, daughter of Swedish physician and former Olympic medalist Nils Silfverskiöld and Swedish Countess Mary von Rosen. Monica had insisted on raising the family together, as children had been divided among family members, and eventually they raised five children: Steven, David, and Beverley (children of Stan and Beverly); and Pamela and Nicolaus (children of Stan and Monica). The couple lived in Copenhagen, Denmark, partly to escape the prevalence of drugs in America at the time. Monica would also become Stan's manager and a major influence in his life.

In 1962, Monica returned with the family to Sweden after having discovered Stan's recurring addictions. During the following period, as he was trying to persuade her to come back, he sent her two test pressings, one of which, Jazz Samba with Charlie Byrd, was pivotal to her plans for the next record, Getz/Gilberto. However, Getz's association with Byrd soured, due to a lawsuit that Byrd initiated against the record company.

After Getz promised to stay clean and sober, Monica returned from Sweden with the family. On November 21, 1962, Brazil sent scores of musicians to Carnegie Hall as a result of the bossa nova craze created by Jazz Samba. After being told by Gilberto and Jobim that Getz had been an invisible partner in their creating of the Bossa Nova by superimposing Getz's jazz harmonies and sound on the old samba, Monica suggested a unification of the three. Jobim and Gilberto reacted with deference and enthusiasm. Getz was reluctant, at first, as he had heard the two were "difficult". Getz had reportedly said that he was convinced when Monica retorted: "Well, don't you have a reputation for being difficult?" They would become very close friends during the recording of Getz/Gilberto, and Gilberto would even move in with the Getzes, occasionally joined by the children of his own two marriages and his second wife, Miúcha.

In the early 1980s, Getz again relapsed into his addictions, resulting in an arrest with an illegal gun in the home with Monica and some of the children. This resulted in an Order of Protection, issued in her favor, which contained a clause that Getz must be sober to be allowed into the house and an Order to go to treatment. As a countermove, Getz filed for divorce from Monica in 1981, but the couple reconciled at his insistence in 1982 and signed a Reconciliation Agreement in which they agreed to jointly buy a house they had found in San Francisco. Soon after, however, Getz relapsed. After a second illegal gun and cocaine incident, Monica returned to their New York home. At this time, she discovered the need for the courts to learn about addiction and founded the National Coalition for Family Justice in 1988, around the time a divorce was finalized. In 1990, Monica Getz petitioned the United States Supreme Court to have their divorce verdict overturned, which it declined. In 1987, he was diagnosed with cancer.

Zoot Sims, who had known Getz since their time with Herman, once described him as "a nice bunch of guys", an allusion to his unpredictable personality. Bob Brookmeyer, another performing colleague, responded to speculation Getz had a heart operation with the rhetorical question "Did they put one in?"

== Death and legacy ==

Getz died of liver cancer on June 6, 1991. His ashes were poured from his saxophone case six miles off the coast of Marina del Rey, California.

== Discography ==

== Awards ==

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance, Soloist or Small Group (Instrumental) "Desafinado", 1962

Grammy Award for Record of the Year, "The Girl from Ipanema", 1964

Grammy Award for Album of the Year, Getz/Gilberto, Stan Getz and João Gilberto (Verve) 1964

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance, Small Group or Soloist With Small Group, Getz/Gilberto, Stan Getz 1964

Grammy Award for Best Jazz Solo Performance, "I Remember You", 1991

== Bibliography ==

Astrup, Arne. The Stan Getz Discography, 1978.

Churchill, Nicholas. Stan Getz: An Annotated Bibliography and Filmography, 2005.

Gelly, Dave. Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me, 2002.

Kirkpatrick, Ron. Stan Getz: An Appreciation of His Recorded Work, 1992.

Maggin, Donald L. (1996). Stan Getz. A Life in Jazz. New York: William Morrow. ISBN 0-688-15555-3.

Palmer, Richard. Stan Getz, 1988.

Taylor, Dennis. Jazz Saxophone: An In-depth Look at the Styles of the Tenor Masters, 2004.

== References ==

== External links ==

Media related to Stan Getz at Wikimedia Commons

Official website

1986 Interview

Getz discography

Source: Wikipedia ↗

João Gilberto do Prado Pereira de Oliveira (, ZHWOWN zhil-BAIR-toh; Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒuˈɐ̃w ʒiwˈbɛʁtu du ˈpɾadu peˈɾejɾɐ dʒi oliˈvejɾɐ]; 10 June 1931 – 6 July 2019) was a Brazilian guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer who was a pioneer of the musical genre bossa nova in the late 1950s. Around the world, he was often called the "father of bossa nova"; in his native Brazil, he was referred to as "O Mito" (The Myth).

In 1965, the album Getz/Gilberto was the first jazz record to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It also won Best Jazz Instrumental Album – Individual or Group and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

Gilberto's Amoroso was nominated for a Grammy in 1978 in the category Best Jazz Vocal Performance. In 2001 he won in the Best World Music Album category with João voz e violão.

== Early life ==

João Gilberto was born in Juazeiro, Bahia, the son of Joviniano Domingos de Oliveira, a wealthy merchant, and Martinha do Prado Pereira de Oliveira. He lived in his native city until 1942, when he began to study in Aracaju, Sergipe, returning to Juazeiro in 1946. At the age of 14, Gilberto got his first guitar from his grandfather despite disapproval from Gilberto's father. Still in Juazeiro, he formed his first band, called "Enamorados do Ritmo". Gilberto moved to Salvador, Bahia, in 1947. During his three years in the city, he dropped out of his studies to dedicate himself exclusively to music and at the age of 18 began his artistic career as a crooner at the Rádio Sociedade da Bahia.

== Career ==

Gilberto's first recordings were released in Brazil as two-song, 78 rpm singles between 1951 and 1959. In the 1960s Brazilian singles evolved to the "double compact" format, and Gilberto released some EPs in this new format, which carried four songs on a 45 rpm record. In 1956, he returned to Rio, having lived there some years from 1950 onward, and struck up old acquaintances, most significantly with Antônio Carlos Jobim, who was by then working as a composer, producer and arranger with Odeon Records. Jobim was impressed with Gilberto's new style of guitar playing and set about finding a suitable song to pitch the style to Odeon management.

In 1963, Gilberto collaborated with American jazz musician Stan Getz on the album Getz/Gilberto which was released the following year. Jobim played the piano for the album while Gilberto's then-wife Astrud performed the vocals in English while he sang in Portuguese. Although Astrud Gilberto was only in the recording studio to be with her husband, João Gilberto requested her to sing on several of the tracks as he could not sing in English. This resulted in a duet between the two on the track "The Girl from Ipanema" which became a major hit from the album. At the 7th Annual Grammy Awards, Getz/Gilberto won three awards including Album of the Year, which marked the first time a jazz album received the accolade.

Gilberto was known for his demanding acoustic and noise-control standards. During a recording session of the song "Rosa Morena", he insisted on 28 takes to get the pronunciation of the o in "Rosa" just right. Nonetheless, despite his high acoustic standards, he skipped a contractually required sound check prior to a July 2003 performance at the Hollywood Bowl, in Los Angeles. This negligence (and the ensuing sound fiasco) prompted the audience to stream from the venue before the concert ended. In 1997, Gilberto sued record label EMI over their reissue of several of his early works, which he contended had been poorly remastered. According to The New York Times, "A statement by his lawyer at the time declared that the reissues contained sound effects that 'did not pertain to the original recordings, banalizing the work of a great artist." Following the incident, EMI ceased production of the albums in question, and, as of 2008, the lawsuit has yet to reach a decision.

In 2001, Gilberto won the Grammy for the Best World Music Album category in the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards for his work in the album João Voz e Violão. A year later, he was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame.

In September 2003, Gilberto performed four shows in Japan. His performance at the Tokyo International Forum on 12 September was recorded for a live album titled In Tokyo which was released in 2004. At the 6th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in 2005, In Tokyo received a nomination for Best MPB Album. He performed at the JVC Jazz Festival in 2008. On 17 May 2017, Gilberto received an honorary doctorate in music from Columbia University but did not attend the commencement ceremony.

His posthumous album Relicário: João Gilberto (Ao Vivo no Sesc 1998) received an honorable mention by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte in their list of the 50 best Brazilian albums of 2023.

=== Role in bossa nova ===

With the introduction of the microphone and the amplifier in Brazil, Gilberto realized that the sound source did not need to be emitted intensely, regarding the voice and instrument, which favored subtle and internalized interpretations. On the other hand, at the time of the first "bossa nova" recordings, Brazil still did not have high fidelity recording equipment capable of reproducing more complex sonorities. Due to that, Gilberto and Tom Jobim, Gilberto's first arranger, elaborated complex harmonies under the influence of American music, and at the same time they simplified the general sound, because of the equipment limitation.

In July 1958, Elizete Cardoso released the famous LP, Canção do Amor Demais, containing songs by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes. The record, however, would enter the history of Brazilian popular music for another reason: Gilberto accompanied Cardoso on guitar on the tracks "Chega de Saudade" and "Outra Vez", these being the first recordings of the so-called "bossa nova beat". In August of that year, Gilberto released a 78 rpm record containing "Chega de Saudade" and "Bim Bom", recorded at Odeon, with collaborations from Jobim, Dorival Caymmi and Aloysio de Oliveira. This record inaugurated the "bossa nova" genre and soon became a commercial success. Gilberto's recording had arrangements by Jobim and the participation of Milton Banana, among other artists. Gilberto innovated by using two microphones to record, one for the voice and one for the guitar. This way, the harmony became more clearly heard. Until then, songs were recorded with only one microphone, emphasizing the voice to the detriment of the guitar. With this innovation, voice and guitar could compete equally, if the voice maintained a natural intensity. Thus, it was necessary to issue the voice in a volume close to that of ordinary speech. With Gilberto, voice and guitar are kept at the same volume intensity, with the microphones picking up both sound sources equally, and, if required, changing the volume of both would be in equal proportion. In 1959, Gilberto released another 78 rpm, containing "Desafinado" by Jobim and Newton Mendonça, and "Hô-bá-lá-lá", written by himself. In March 1959, he released the LP Chega de Saudade, which became a sales success and had a major impact in the history of Brazilian music.

== Musical style ==

Gilberto's style combines traditional elements of samba with more contemporary jazz. His "unique" acoustic guitar style involves a syncopated rhythm of plucked chords, with chord progressions rooted in the jazz tradition. His vocal style has been described as "laid-back and understated". In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Gilberto at number 81 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Leonardo Rocha, in his obituary for the BBC, states that Gilberto's music describes "a period of huge optimism in Brazil".

== Personal life ==

Gilberto first married the singer Astrud Weinert, with whom he collaborated on the hit recording of "The Girl from Ipanema"; the couple had a son called João Marcelo. They divorced, and he later married the singer Miúcha (died 2018); they had only one daughter, Bebel Gilberto. They later separated. Gilberto also had a daughter with Claudia Faissol, a journalist.

Gilberto lived alone from around 2009. His final years were marked by money problems as well as declining health. In 2011, he was sued and evicted from an apartment in Leblon by his landlord, Countess Georgina Brandolini d'Adda. It was reported in December 2017 that his daughter Bebel was seeking control of his financial affairs because of his declining mental state and increasing indebtedness.

On 6 July 2019, Gilberto died at his apartment in Rio de Janeiro. His body was buried in the Cemetery Hill Park in Niterói following a private ceremony on 8 July 2019.

Writing in The Guardian after his death, Dom Phillips described Gilberto as ".. one of the country's greatest musicians and composers, a reclusive genius in a nation of extroverts whose work recalled happier, more optimistic times for a deeply divided nation." In The Washington Post pop critic Chris Richards said, "His voice was one of the most intimate sounds of the 20th century – more melodic than a sigh, more rhythmic than chitchat, only just barely. Every syllable that appeared on his lips carried an air of effortlessness, but Gilberto had worked hard to locate that sacred place where a human breath becomes music."

== Discography ==

Gilberto has released several studio and live albums:

"Quando Você Recordar" // "Amar é Bom" (1951)

"Anjo Cruel" // "Sem Ela" (1951)

"Quando Ela Sai" // "Meia Luz" (1952)

"Chega de Saudade" // ""Bim-Bom" (Odeon 14.360, 1958)

"Desafinado" // "Hô-bá-lá-lá" (Odeon 14.426, 1958)

"Lôbo Bôbo" // "Maria Ninguém" (Odeon 14.460, 1959)

Cantando as Músicas do Film 'Orfeu do Carnaval' (Odeon, 1959) - 7-inch EP combining two 78 rpm singles, released in 1959: "A Felicidade" // "O Nosso Amor" (Odeon 14.491) and "Manhã de Carnaval" // "Frêvo" (Odeon 14.495).

Chega de Saudade (Odeon, 1959)

O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor [AKA Brazil's Brilliant João Gilberto] (Odeon, 1960)

João Gilberto (Odeon, 1961)

Getz/Gilberto (with Stan Getz) (Verve, 1963 [1964])

Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall (Audio Fidelity, 1963)

The Boss of Bossa Nova (Atlantic, 1963) reissue of João Gilberto

The Warm World of João Gilberto (Atlantic, 1963) reissue of Chega de Saudade

Gilberto and Jobim (Capitol, 1964) reissue of Brazil's Brilliant João Gilberto

Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2 (with Stan Getz) (Verve, 1964 [1966])

João Gilberto en México (Orfeon, 1970)

João Gilberto (Polydor, 1973) - this release is often referred to as João Gilberto's "white album".

The Best of Two Worlds (with Stan Getz) (Columbia, 1975 [1976])

Amoroso (Warner Bros., 1977)

Interpreta Tom Jobim (Odeon, 1978; reissued in 1985)

João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira (Warner Bros., 1980)

Brasil (with Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethânia) (Warner Bros., 1981)

Meditação (EMI, 1985)

Live in Montreux (Elektra Musician, 1985 [1987])

O Mito (EMI, 1988) - also released as The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-1961) on World Pacific in 1990.

Stan Getz Meets João & Astrud Gilberto: New York 1964 (Giants of Jazz, 1990)

João (Philips, 1991)

Eu Sei que Vou Te Amar (Epic, 1994)

João Voz e Violão (Verve, 2000)

Live at Umbria Jazz (EGEA [Italy], 2002)

In Tokyo (Verve, 2003 [2004])

Um Encontro No Au Bon Gourmet (with Tom Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes and Os Cariocas) (Doxy, 2015) - recorded live in 1962.

Getz/Gilberto '76 [live] (Resonance, 2016)

Relicário: João Gilberto Ao Vivo No Sesc (05 abr 1998) (Selo SESC SP, 2023) 2-CD

== Awards ==

== Notes ==

== References ==

== Sources ==

Castro, Ruy (trans. by Lysa Salsbury). Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World. 2000. 1st English language edition. A Capella Books, an imprint of Chicago Review Press, Inc. ISBN 1-55652-409-9 First published in Brasil by Companhia das Letras. 1990.

McGowan, Chris and Pessanha, Ricardo. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil. 1998. 2nd edition. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-545-3

Gridley, Mark. Jazz Styles: History and Analysis. 9th. NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, Print.

De Stefano, Gildo, Il popolo del samba, La vicenda e i protagonisti della storia della musica popolare brasiliana, Preface by Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Introduction by Gianni Minà, RAI-ERI, Rome 2005, ISBN 8839713484

De Stefano, Gildo, Saudade Bossa Nova: musiche, contaminazioni e ritmi del Brasile, Preface by Chico Buarque, Introduction by Gianni Minà, Logisma Editore, Florence 2017, ISBN 978-88-97530-88-6

== External links ==

Media related to João Gilberto at Wikimedia Commons

João Gilberto discography at Discogs

João Gilberto Archived 11 July 2019 at the Wayback Machine discography by Laura Pelner McCarthy

João Gilberto discography on Slipcue.com

Plain João—The Man Who Invented Bossa Nova, a biographical profile by Daniella Thompson

Joao Gilberto: The Early Records a special on Gilberto at the blog Worlds of Wanwood

Behind the scenes of the legendary 1962 bossa nova concert

Bossa Nova Guitar Transcriptions – mostly of songs performed by João Gilberto

The Brazilian Sound: Brazilian Music & Culture – site

Source: Wikipedia ↗

Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (25 January 1927 – 8 December 1994), also known as Tom Jobim (Portuguese pronunciation: [tõ ʒoˈbĩ] ), was a Brazilian composer, pianist, guitarist, songwriter, arranger and singer. Jobim is considered a great exponent of Brazilian music and one of the fathers of bossa nova for having merged samba with cool jazz in the 1960s as a pioneer of the genre. He is also regarded as one of the most celebrated songwriters of the 20th century, and his compositions have been played and recorded by many singers and instrumentalists internationally since the early 1960s.

Jobim is best known for his composition "Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema)", which has been recorded over 240 times by other artists, and is believed to be one of the most recorded popular songs in history. Along with "Garota de Ipanema", many of Jobim's compositions are included in jazz and pop standard repertoires. Several of these compositions are featured on the 1964 album Getz/Gilberto, which won the Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Album – Individual or Group, Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, and was the first jazz record to win Album of the Year. The recording of "Garota de Ipanema" that features on this album also won Record of the Year when released as a single. His 1967 album with Frank Sinatra, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim, was nominated for Album of the Year in 1968 and album Antônio Brasileiro was awarded the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

== Early life ==

Antônio Carlos Jobim was born at 23:15 BRT on 25 January 1927 in the middle-class district of Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Jorge de Oliveira Jobim (São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul; 1889–1935), was a writer, diplomat, professor and journalist. He came from a prominent family, being the great-nephew of José Martins da Cruz Jobim, senator, privy councillor and physician of Emperor Dom Pedro II. While studying medicine in Europe, José Martins added Jobim to his last name, paying homage to the village where his family came from in Portugal, the parish of Santa Cruz de Jovim, Porto. Antônio's mother, Nilza Brasileiro de Almeida (c. 1910–1989), was of partly indigenous descent from northeastern Brazil. Brasileiro de Almeida was only 16 years old when she gave birth to Antônio Carlos Jobim at their home in Tijuca on Rua Conde de Bonfim.

When Antônio was still an infant, his parents separated and his mother moved with her children (Antônio Carlos and his sister Helena Isaura, born 23 February 1931) to Ipanema, the beachside neighborhood the composer would later celebrate in his songs. In 1935, when the elder Jobim died, Nilza married Celso da Frota Pessoa (died 2 February 1979), who would encourage his stepson's career; he gave Jobim his first piano. Jobim credits his stepfather with encouraging him to pursue music. In an interview with Roberto d'Ávila in 1981, he said, "I hated the piano, I thought it was a girly thing, I liked to play soccer...I had a great stepfather who really helped me get involved with music and convinced me that the piano was not a girly thing." As a young man of limited means, Jobim earned his living by playing in nightclubs and bars and later as an arranger for a recording label before starting to achieve success as a composer.

Later on in the interview with Roberto d'Ávila, Jobim talks about his feelings toward his upbringing. He notes a conversation he had with Erico Verissimo, a friend of his father, in which Verissimo said that Tom Jobim should be sombre due to the absence of his father from a young age. Jobim told d'Ávila: "I was left without a father, clinging to my mother's skirts…some [men] have 'excessive' fathers, the excessive presence of their fathers is a problem, but the absence of a father is also a problem." Jobim continued with d'Ávila, sharing that it takes something of great influence to bring someone to dedicate their life to music. He said that "people who play the piano well are all handicapped". He mentions the health struggles of both Sérgio Mendes, who had osteomyelitis, and Luiz Eça, who had polio. "It takes something really strong to make you leave reality behind and begin to write songs," Jobim shared. With d'Ávila he alludes to his sadness as a young man as being the driving force that motivated him to further his pursuit in music, that he needed to be sad in order to play the piano and write. He concludes on the topic with d'Ávila that, at that point in his life (the interview having taken place in 1981) that he no longer needed to be sad to create music, that he was no longer sad as he was at the beginning of his career.

=== Musical influences ===

Jobim's musical roots were planted firmly in the work of Pixinguinha, the legendary musician and composer who began modern Brazilian music in the 1930s. Among his teachers were Lúcia Branco and, from 1941 on, Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, a German composer who lived in Brazil and introduced atonal and twelve-tone composition in the country. Jobim's mother established a school where Jobim would begin taking lessons on the piano; this is when he would meet Koellreutter. Jobim was also influenced by the French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and by the Brazilian composers Ary Barroso who has been described as Jobim's "most important musical influence". Among many themes, his lyrics talked about love, self-discovery, betrayal, joy and especially about the birds and natural wonders of Brazil, like the "Mata Atlântica" forest, characters of Brazilian folklore and his home city of Rio de Janeiro. In a segment with the NBC Today show in 1986, hosted by Jane Pauley, Jobim spoke about his music's origins of inspiration, saying "My music comes from this environment here, you know, the rain, the sun, the trees, the birds, the fish."

== Career ==

In the 1940s Jobim started to play piano in bars and nightclubs of Rio de Janeiro, and in the first years of the 1950s he worked as an arranger in the Continental Studio, where in April 1953 he had his first composition recorded, when the Brazilian singer Mauricy Moura recorded Jobim's composition "Incerteza", with lyrics by Newton Mendonça.

Jobim became prominent in Brazil when he teamed up with poet and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes to write the music for the play Orfeu da Conceição (1956). The most popular song from the show was "Se Todos Fossem Iguais A Você" ("If Everyone Were Like You"). Later, when the play was adapted into a film, producer Sacha Gordine did not want to use any of the existing music from the play. Gordine asked de Moraes and Jobim for a new score for the film Orfeu Negro, or Black Orpheus (1959). Moraes was at the time away in Montevideo, Uruguay, working for the Itamaraty (the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and so he and Jobim were only able to write three songs, primarily over the telephone ("A felicidade", "Frevo" and "O nosso amor"). This collaboration proved successful, and de Moraes went on to pen the lyrics to some of Jobim's most popular songs.

In 1958 the Brazilian singer and guitarist João Gilberto recorded his first album with two of Jobim's most famous songs, "Desafinado" and "Chega de Saudade". This album inaugurated the Bossa Nova movement in Brazil. The sophisticated harmonies of his songs caught the attention of jazz musicians in the United States, principally after his first performance at Carnegie Hall, in 1962.

A key event in making Jobim's music known in the English-speaking world was his collaboration with the American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz, the Brazilian singer João Gilberto, and Gilberto's wife at the time, Astrud Gilberto, which resulted in two albums, Getz/Gilberto (1964) and Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2 (1966). The release of Getz/Gilberto created a bossa nova craze in the United States and subsequently internationally. Getz had previously recorded Jazz Samba with Charlie Byrd (1962), and Jazz Samba Encore! with Luiz Bonfá (1964). Jobim wrote many of the songs on Getz/Gilberto, which became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, and turned Astrud Gilberto, who sang on "Garota de Ipanema" ("The Girl from Ipanema") and "Corcovado" ("Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars"), into an international sensation. At the Grammy Awards of 1965 Getz/Gilberto won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group and the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "The Girl from Ipanema" won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Among his later hits is "Águas de Março" ("Waters of March", 1972), for which he wrote both the Portuguese and English lyrics, and which was then translated into French by Georges Moustaki (as "Les Eaux de Mars", 1973).

In talking about his creative process when writing and creating "Girl From Ipanema", Jobim told Roberto d’Ávila in 1981, "It comes to me in a way, then it changes one or two times and all of the sudden, it becomes something that makes sense…it's like the profile of a woman…the profile of a woman, something very discernible, then you say: ‘hey, this is really beautiful…’ then you stare and as soon as you stare, it's gone, I mean it becomes part of the past." Jobim continues, "I mean, every time you draw something it turns into, it's something static… that portrait remains forever."

=== Collaboration with Elis Regina c. 1974–1982 ===

Jobim and Elis Regina first met in 1974 in Los Angeles, when Regina was only 29 years old and still a fresh face in the Brazilian music industry. Regina was a force to be reckoned with, being referred to as furacão ("hurricane" in English) by those who worked with and around her. The two artists came together to create the album Elis & Tom which would unexpectedly become tremendously popular in the United States as well as across the globe. Regina and Jobim had a special creative chemistry between them that was noted by those who were present to witness the collaborative process first hand during that era in both of their careers. Oscar Castro-Neves, a guitarist-producer who worked with Regina and Jobim on the Elis & Tom album in the mid-1970s, recalled in an article with the Los Angeles Times that "There was a very fine line between ‘rehearsal’ and ‘hanging out,’ ‘just talking’...it was all that seamless." Due to the nature of their work relationship, Regina and Jobim grew close and had a symbiosis that is reflected in the result of their work together. "Aguas de março" represents this, with the lyrics simulating a banter of finishing each other's sentences.

== Personal life ==

Jobim was married to Thereza Otero Hermanny on 15 October 1949 and had two children with her: Paulo Jobim (1950–2022), an architect and musician and father of Daniel Jobim (born 1973) and Dora Jobim (born 1976); and Elizabeth "Beth" Jobim (born 1957), a painter. Jobim and Thereza divorced in 1978. On 30 April 1986, he married 29-year-old photographer Ana Beatriz Lontra, with whom he had two more children: João Francisco Jobim (1979–1998) and Maria Luiza Helena Jobim (born 1987). Daniel, Paulo's son, followed his grandfather to become a pianist and composer, and performed "The Girl from Ipanema" during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

== Death ==

In early 1994, after finishing his album Antonio Brasileiro, Jobim complained to his doctor, Roberto Hugo Costa Lima, of urinary problems. Jobim was diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent treatment, although he postponed surgery. He underwent an operation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on 2 December 1994. At 7:00 EST on 8 December, while recovering from surgery, he had a cardiac arrest caused by a pulmonary embolism, and two hours later, another cardiac arrest, from which he died. He was survived by his children and grandchildren. His last album, Antonio Brasileiro, was released posthumously, just days after his death.

His body lay in state until given a proper burial on 20 December 1994. He is buried in the Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro.

== Legacy ==

Jobim is widely regarded as one of the most important songwriters of the 20th century. Many of his songs are jazz standards. American jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra prominently featured Jobim's songs on their albums Ella Abraça Jobim (1981) and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim (1967), respectively. The 1996 CD Wave: The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook included performances of Jobim tunes by Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea and Toots Thielemans.

Jobim was an innovator in the use of sophisticated harmonic structures in popular song. Some of his melodic twists included the melody insisting on the major seventh of the chord.

The Brazilian collaborators and interpreters of Jobim's music include Vinicius de Moraes, João Gilberto (often credited as a co-creator or creator of bossa nova), Chico Buarque, Edu Lobo, Gal Costa, Elis Regina, Sérgio Mendes, Astrud Gilberto and Flora Purim. Buarque said in 1999 he has a drawer full of tapes gifted to him by Jobim. Significant arrangements of Jobim's compositions were written by Eumir Deodato, Nelson Riddle, and especially the conductor/composer Claus Ogerman.

He won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012. As a posthumous homage, on 5 January 1999, the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro changed the name of Rio's Galeão International Airport, located on Governador Island, to bear the composer's name. Galeão Airport is explicitly mentioned in his composition "Samba do Avião". In 2014, Jobim was posthumously inducted to the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2015, Billboard named Jobim as one of The 30 Most Influential Latin Artists of All Time.

He was nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist at the 7th Grammy Awards, where he lost to the Beatles. He won Best Latin Jazz Performance for the album titled Antonio Brasileiro at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards.

Written by Elliott Smith, the ninth track on Oregon alternative rock band Heatmiser's 1994 album Cop and Speeder is entitled "Antonio Carlos Jobim".

American contemporary jazz singer Michael Franks dedicated his 1995 album Abandoned Garden to the memory of Jobim. English singer/songwriter George Michael frequently acknowledged Jobim's influence. His 1996 album Older was dedicated to Jobim, and he recorded "Desafinado" on Red Hot + Rio (1996) with Astrud Gilberto.

Following a public vote, the official mascot of the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Tom, was named after him.

In 2015, a crater on the planet Mercury was named in his honor by the IAU.

== Discography and compositions ==

== References ==

== Sources ==

Cabral, Sergio (2008). Antônio Carlos Jobim – Uma Biografia (1st ed.). São Paulo, Brazil: IBEP Nacional. ISBN 978-85-7865-011-7.

Castro, Ruy (2000). Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World (1st English-Language ed.). Chicago: A Capella Books. ISBN 978-1-55652-409-7.

De Stefano, Gildo, Il popolo del samba, La vicenda e i protagonisti della storia della musica popolare brasiliana, preface by Chico Buarque de Hollanda, introduction by Gianni Minà, RAI-ERI, Rome 2005, ISBN 8839713484

De Stefano, Gildo, Saudade Bossa Nova: musiche, contaminazioni e ritmi del Brasile, preface by Chico Buarque, introduction by Gianni Minà, Logisma Editore, Florence 2017, ISBN 978-88-97530-88-6

Jobim, Helena (2011). Antonio Carlos Jobim: an illuminated man. Montclair, NJ: Hal Leonard. ISBN 978-1-61780-343-7. OCLC 709673747.

McGowan, Chris; Pessanha, Ricardo (2008). The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1592139293.

== External links ==

Antônio Carlos Jobim – tribute site

Antônio Carlos Jobim – remembrance site

Antônio Carlos Jobim discography at Discogs

Antônio Carlos Jobim at IMDb

Antônio Carlos Jobim Archived 15 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine at The Brazilian Sound

Antônio Carlos Jobim – "Clube do Tom"

Antônio Carlos Jobim – behind the scenes of the legendary bossa nova concert at Carnegie Hall in 1962 (in Portuguese)

Source: Wikipedia ↗