National Geographic Music (National Geographic)

The name Tom Jobim (1927–1994) is synonymous with the bossa nova genre he helped to create, and he is perhaps one of the most accomplished songwriters in the history of Brazilian music. Jobim's compositions would become standards not only in Brazil, but for virtually all jazz musicians and international music lovers who heard and were inspired by this new sound.

Growing up on the beaches of Ipanema during the 1930s, Antonio Carlos Jobim began his musical studies at 14, and went on to study classical harmony and composition with German-born Hans Joachin Koellreutter, who was a pioneer in Brazil's avant-garde music scene. But it was Jobim's discovery of national icon Heitor Villa-Lobos that most inspired the young composer, who continued his studies while working in local nightclubs (although originally pursuing an architectural career) until landing a job as a music transcriber at the Continental record company. As he developed his musical skill, Jobim never strayed from the sounds of his country's popular samba music, and explored new harmonic possibilities within the genre. Jobim collaborated with a number of lyricists during the early '50s, and also worked as musical director of the Odeon label, but perhaps his most prolific partnership was established in 1956 when he teamed up with lyricist Vinícius de Morães. Together, Jobim and de Morães would collaborate on some of the world's most memorable bossa novas including "Garota de Ipanema," "Água de Beber," "Chega de Saudade" and "A Felicidade," among others. In 1958, a then unknown singer/guitarist named João Gilberto recorded two singles of Jobim's compositions which subsequently lead to the 1959 Chega de Saudade album that launched the bossa nova era.

Soon many artists (mainly Americans) began recording the style as well as Jobim's tunes, including Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane, Herbie Mann, Charlie Byrd and many others. In 1962, Jobim went to New York to participate in a showcase of bossa nova and the new "jazz-bossa" sound in Carnegie Hall, and went on to record one of the seminal albums in the genre's history, Getz/Gilberto, with American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz and João Gilberto in 1964. The album's success (several Grammy Awards and 96 weeks on the pop-music charts) spawned numerous collaborations among Brazilian and American jazz and pop artists, and paved the way for a furry of bossa nova recordings. In the decades to come Jobim produced and composed a number of film and television scores, and resumed a touring career in the mid-'80s with the birth of the world-music phenomenon. Despite his sudden death in 1994 in New York City of heart failure, Jobim was finally receiving the international recognition he deserved for his prolific contributions to the music world. His final recorded performances in Brazil (1993) and Carnegie Hall (1994) are testaments to his extraordinarily multifaceted career, and his compositions remain as some of the most memorable in all of the Americas. —Rebeca Mauleon