He was a primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova style, and his songs have been performed by many singers and instrumentalists within Brazil and internationally.
In 1965 his album Getz/Gilberto was the first jazz album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It also won for Best Jazz Instrumental Album – Individual or Group and for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. The album's single "Garota de Ipanema" ("The Girl from Ipanema"), one of the most recorded songs of all time, won the Record of the Year. Jobim has left many songs that are now included in jazz and pop standard repertoires. The song "Garota de Ipanema" has been recorded over 240 times by other artists. His 1967 album with Frank Sinatra, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim, was nominated for Album of the Year in 1968.
Antônio Carlos Jobim was born in the middle-class district of Tijuca in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Jorge de Oliveira Jobim (São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul, April 23, 1889 – July 19, 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. His mother, Nilza Brasileiro de Almeida (c. 1910 – November 17, 1989), was of Indigenous Brazilian descent from Northeastern Brazil.
When Antônio was still an infant, his parents separated and his mother moved with her children (Antônio Carlos and his sister Helena Isaura, born February 23, 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 February 2, 1979), who would encourage his stepson's career. He was the one who gave Jobim his first piano. 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.
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 was also influenced by the French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and by the Brazilian composers Heitor Villa-Lobos and Ary Barroso. The bossa nova guitar style in Jobim's music has become firmly entrenched in jazz culture. 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 early 1994, after finishing his album Antonio Brasileiro, Jobim complained to his doctor, Roberto Hugo Costa Lima, of urinary problems. He underwent an operation at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on December 2, 1994. On December 8, 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 three days after his death.
His body lay in state until given a proper burial on December 20, 1994. He is buried in the Cemitério São João Batista in Rio de Janeiro.
Dreamer
Antônio Carlos Jobim Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Why do I dream silly dreams that I fear won't come true
I long to show you the stars
Caught in the dark of the sea
I long to speak of my love but you don't come to me
So I go on asking if maybe one day you'll care
I tell my sad little dreams to the soft evening air
One is to dream
Two is loving you
So I go on asking if maybe one day you'll care
I tell my sad little dreams to the soft evening air
I am quite hopeless it seems, two things I know how to do
One is to dream
Two is loving you
Antônio Carlos Jobim's song Dreamer [Vivo Sonhando] is a beautiful expression of unrequited love. The lyrics speak to the longing and hopelessness that come with loving someone who doesn't love you back. The first two lines of the song set the tone for the rest of the lyrics. The singer asks why they are always filled with thoughts of the person they love, and why they continue to dream of them, even though those dreams may never come true.
The singer expresses a desire to show the person they love the beauty of the world, represented by the stars caught in the dark of the sea. However, the person they love does not seem interested in their love, and so the singer speaks of their love only to the soft evening air. The singer knows that they are hopeless in their love, but continues to dream and love the person anyway. This is a poignant expression of the pain and beauty of unrequited love, and the power of dreams and imagination to keep us going.
Line by Line Meaning
Why are my eyes always full of this vision of you
My thoughts are constantly occupied by thoughts of you, and I can't seem to shake them off.
Why do I dream silly dreams that I fear won't come true
I have fanciful and unrealistic wishes that I worry may never become reality.
I long to show you the stars
I yearn to share with you the wonders and beauty of the universe.
Caught in the dark of the sea
I feel lost and adrift, unable to find my way without your love and guidance.
I long to speak of my love but you don't come to me
I desperately want to express my affections for you, but I feel as though you are out of reach and unresponsive to me.
So I go on asking if maybe one day you'll care
I persist in wondering if someday you will reciprocate my feelings and care for me in return.
I tell my sad little dreams to the soft evening air
In my loneliness and despair, I confide in the gentle and soothing atmosphere of the night, pouring out my heartfelt and melancholic wishes.
I am quite hopeless it seems, two things I know how to do
I feel powerless and without prospects, but I am certain of two things: dreaming and loving you.
One is to dream
My imagination and hopes have become my constant companions and coping mechanism in my love for you.
Two is loving you
Above all else, I am deeply and earnestly in love with you, and my heart will continue to hold onto that truth no matter where my dreams may lead me.
Writer(s): JOBIM ANTONIO CARLOS, JOBIM ANTONIO CARLOS
Contributed by Bella K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Richard Norris
on Samba Do Soho
It's "Diadem" which is a fancy headband. Also, I believe this song was written by Jobim's son, Paolo.