Meditation - Antonio Carlos Jobim

 

Agua De Beber

Meditation 

Brazilian Mods by Antonio Carlos Jobim

Arrangements by Claus Ogerman

Recording Engineer: Phil Ramone

Director of Engineering: Val Valentin

Cover Photograph by Werner Bokelberg

Produced by Creed Taylor

Verve 711 076 (Printed in Germany)

1969

From the back cover: If Bossa Nova could be considered a revolution or a movement in American popular music, then Desafinado most certainly has been its battle cry. The perky, catchy melody was whistled, hummed, thought of, and quite possibly married to during most of 1962. Stan Getz copped his first "Grammy" at the annual awards presentation of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for "Best Jazz Performance" of 1962. The vehicle, of course, was his version (with guitarist Charlie Byrd_ of Desanfinado. Getz was nominated for eight "Grammy" awards, more than any other single performer in the Academy's history, and nearly all of them were for Desafinado or the parent album, "Jazz Samba" (V6-8432).

So profound was the impact of Desanfinado that Bossa Nova became the thing in pop music. Standards were performed in the "new rhythm" and we were deluged by such items as Stardust Bossa Nova, Fly Me To The Moon Bossa Nova, Bossa Nova Cha Cha Cha, and even Blame It On The Bossa Nova. Arthur Murray and other dance instructors exhorted us to learn to "do" the Bossa Nova.

And, somehow, in all the shuffle, the lightness and the delicacy and the depth of feeling of Bossa Nova got lost. The followers and the doers and the players-for-dancing either forgot or ignored the characteristically long structure of the authentic Brazilian Bossa Nova, its naturally accented rhythm, and the minor feel of the music.

It had become the new thing because it was the new way to make a buck.

This bit of generalization history is by way of introduction to the composer of Desafinado, and one of the young musicians from Brazil who was in at the creation of Bossa Nova: Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Jobim's lovely melody, Desafinado, was the anthem of Bossa Nova in this county. But the man's music doesn't begin and end there. Collected in this set are more of the remarkable works of this Brazilian composer, each, in its own way, as unique and startling as Desanfinado.

Jobim is a lean, handsome musician from Rio de Janeiro whose instruments are piano and guitar, but whose forte is composition. His strength is in the creation of somewhat sad, often languid, always haunting melodies.

He was 36 years old when this set was recorded, and was in New York for a live-and-work period which found him recording, writing for publishers and record companies, and meeting American jazz musicians. In Rio, he studied piano "with good European teachers" as a child. He also is fluent on guitar, and played that instrument on the album, "Jazz Samba Encore!" (Verve V6-8523), by countryman Luiz Bonfa and Stan Getz.

Jobim's music was heard, along with that of Bonfa, on the sound track of the beautiful Brazilian film, "Black Orpheus."

At the time this album was recorded, Jobim had not played piano for about a year. Most of his time was devoted solely to composition. For the mood and spirit of this album, the composer stayed very close to his melody lines, and used a unique, deceptively simple one-note, right-hand style of playing.

The interpretation is as much Jobim as the melodies

Other soloists heard throughout are Jimmy Cleveland, trombone and Leo Wright, flute. – Dom Cerulli

The Girl From Ipanema

O Morro

Agua De Beber

Dreamer

Favela

Insensatez

Corcovado

One Note Samba

Meditation

Jazz Samba (So Danco Samba from the film "Copacabana Palace")

Chega De Saudade

Desafinado