The Continuous Death of Tom Jobim

In Brazilian music, there are so many names that do not require any sort of introduction. Indeed, these are names that are often conflated with the definition of Brazilian music itself. They are names that, when spoken, evoke something of reverence, as when mentioning sacred names, names of gods. And there are many of these names. It is as if it were an Olympus of different Orpheus. One of them radiated and still radiates a greater light. A common name: Antônio Carlos. Brazilian, as a surname. That's right, Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim, born in 1927 in Rio de Janeiro, made universal under the name Tom Jobim.

by Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho

Popular and erudite, elegant and vulgar, individual and collective, past and present, songwriter and symphonist, whatever adjective we want to find for his music, it always applies to Tom Jobim.

Jobim was, with Vinicius de Moraes, the composer and arranger of the songs in the play Orfeu da Conceição and for the Marcel Camus' film, Orfeu Negro. In the play, the song “Se todos fossem iguais a você” epitomizes a totally new idea of Brazilian music. Jobim is also one of the 'founding fathers' of Bossa Nova. He is the arranger and composer of many works on the 1958 album 'Canção do Amor Demais', the seed of Bossa Nova. He is also the arranger and musical director of ‘Chega de Saudade’, from 1959, together with João Gilberto who enshrines the movement.

Then comes ‘Garota de Ipanema”, also with Vinicius de Moraes, that becomes one of the most heard and recorded Brazilian songs in history.

Tom Jobim also projects Brazilian music and bossa nova globally and his ‘Girl from Ipanema’ is recorded by Frank Sinatra. His songs were performed and recorded by Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and others.

The harmonic sophistication of his compositions, combined with a melodic lightness, were unique and synthesized the constitutive elements of Brazilian music in a paradigmatic way.

Jobim also had a rare ability to translate literature into music and he did it masterfully with the novels 'O Tempo e o Vento', by Érico Veríssimo, and with 'Gabriela, Cravo e Canela', by Jorge Amado.

There was always something plus, something extra, transcendent about this composer and one of the most striking aspects was his relationship with nature and his concern for the planet's environmental future. Long before people started to talk about environmental conservation and sustainability, in 1987 Tom Jobim released the album ‘Passarim’, alike to an ecological musical treatise. Before, Jobim had already composed works like Sabiá (with Chico Buarque), with which he won the International Song Festival in 1968.

In 1995 Jobim wrote the following in the book: “Visão do Paraíso: a Mata Atlântica”: These songs that I made, Dindi, Borzeguim, Águas de Março, and so many others, all inspired by the forest. In the Atlantic Forest, life is in profusion. (...) No matter how much we walk around, we are always amazed by the exuberance of virtue, with wealth.”

And then he quotes the poem ‘Amar’ (To Love), by the poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade: “it is an unlimited donation to an eternal ingratitude.” (“é uma doação ilimitada a uma eterna ingratidão”). In one of the songs, Borzeguim, says the composer / poet:

Deixa o tatu-bola no lugar

Deixa a capivara atravessar

Deixa a anta cruzar o ribeirão

Deixa o índio vivo no sertão

Deixa o índio vivo nu

Deixa o índio vivo

Deixa

Leave the armadillo in peace

Let the capybara cross

Let the tapir cross the stream

Leave the Indian alive in the sertão

Leave the Indian alive naked

Let the Indian alive

Leave it

Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim died on the 8th of December 1994. Tom Jobim, however, remained alive. But he continues to die in every forest fire we see, in every dead wild animal, in every nefarious and criminal act of deforestation, in every bird that ceases to sing in the generous nature of an ungrateful Brazil.