Tom Jobim

Tom Jobim is the name that best represents Brazilian music on the second half of the 20th century. Pianist, composer, singer, arranger, occasional guitarist, he’s practically a unanimous call when it comes to musical quality and sophistication. Tom was born in the north part of Rio de Janeiro, but his family soon moved to Ipanema. Tom Jobim performed in bars and clubs in the early 50s, in Copacabana, and eventually got hired by a record company. Besides writing the arrangements for other people’s songs, he also had to transcribe melodies written by composers who were illiterate in terms of musical notations. He started writing his own compositions at that time. Tom Jobim was part of the embryonic nucleus of bossa nova. The album "Canção do Amor Demais" (1958), featuring music by Tom and Vinícius, sung by Eliseth Cardoso and accompanied by João Gilberto’s guitar, is regarded as a landmark for bossa nova, due to the freshness of the arrangements, harmonic and melodic patterns. Acquiring taste for classical composers like Villa-Lobos and Debussy, Tom Jobim went on writing and recording exquisite, finely inspired music, merging jazzy harmonies with typically Brazilian elements that he researched quite seriously. His last CD, "Antônio Brasileiro", was released in 1994, little before his passing away in December (in the United States).