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.
How Insensitive
Antônio Carlos Jobim Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When she told me that she loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When she told me so sincerely
Why she must have asked
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say
When a love affair is over
Now she's gone away
And I'm alone
With a memory of her last look
Vague and drawn and sad
I see it still
All her heartbreak in that last look
How she must have asked
Could I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to do
What can one do
When a love affair is over
The lyrics of "How Insensitive" describe the aftermath of a failed love affair, as the singer reflects on his own emotional numbness and insensitivity towards his partner's honest expression of her love for him. He acknowledges that he must have seemed "unmoved and cold" when she confessed her feelings, staring back at her with an "icy silence" that betrayed his own lack of reciprocation. The singer now laments that he was unable to offer any adequate response, feeling lost and alone in his memories of their last encounter. He describes his former lover as looking "vague and drawn and sad," with all of the heartbreak of their failed relationship evident in her final expression.
The song is a poignant exploration of the emotional damage that can result from a breakdown in communication within a relationship. The singer only realizes the depth of his partner's feelings for him after she is gone, left with only the memory of her final look to remind him of what he has lost. The use of poetic language and vivid imagery helps to convey the complex emotions and regrets that arise from love's failures.
Line by Line Meaning
I must have seemed
I appeared to be
When she told me that she loved me
When she expressed her love for me
How unmoved and cold
My reaction was without warmth or emotion
I must have seemed
I appeared to be
When she told me so sincerely
When she expressed her feelings honestly
Why she must have asked
She probably wondered
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
Did I respond with a cold and unfeeling stare
What was I to say
What appropriate words could I offer
What can you say
What words are there
When a love affair is over
At the end of a romantic relationship
Now she's gone away
Currently, she is no longer with me
And I'm alone
I am by myself
With a memory of her last look
With a recollection of the final expression on her face
Vague and drawn and sad
Faint, extended, and sorrowful
I see it still
It still comes to my mind
All her heartbreak in that last look
Her last expression showed her distress
How she must have asked
Likely, she inquired
Could I just turn and stare in icy silence
Did I merely behave with a frigid and silent response
What was I to do
What was the appropriate reaction
What can one do
What should someone do
When a love affair is over
At the end of a romantic relationship
Writer(s): Antonio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius De Moraes, Norman Gimbel
Contributed by Hannah G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@UltimateJazzyQuintet
Ah, insensatez que você fez
Coração mais sem cuidado
Fez chorar de dor o seu amor
Um amor tão delicado
Ah, por que você foi fraco assim
Assim tão desalmado
Ah, meu coração, quem nunca amou
Não merece ser amado
Vai, meu coração, ouve a razão
Usa só sinceridade
Quem semeia vento, diz a razão
Colhe sempre tempestade
Vai, meu coração, pede perdão
Perdão apaixonado
Vai, porque quem não pede perdão
Não é nunca perdoado
@shady_kid_
How insensitive
I must have seemed
When he told me that he loved me
How unmoved and cold
I must have seemed
When he told me so sincerely
Why he must have asked
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say?
What can you say
When a love affair is over?
Now he's gone away
And I'm alone
With a memory of his last look
Vague and drawn and sad
I see it still
All the heartbreak in his last look
How he must have asked,
Did I just turn and stare in icy silence
What was I to say?
What can you say
When a love affair is over?
@alletsasil
I heard this song as a kid, not knowing the name of it. Ever since, I would find myself humming this melody every now and then, searching for it, in vain. Thank god I watched Lost Highway and finally heard it again! What a relief!
@espectrograma
Very touching a song.
@laurae271
Musica que siempre vivirá en mis recuerdos de mi infancia..🤗
Gracias por enseñarme a escuchar la buena música Papá, siempre te recordaré en estas canciones tan bellas...😢
@imaginativelads
The most sophisticated and beautiful jazz ever written. I love it for its seeming simplicity and elegance.
@GTR-wx8jq
+imaginativelads
Well Stated :)
@M.E.N.E.M.
It s not jazz
@elyaqui5324
In other words its A Beautiful song
@chriskezen
isn't jazz. is bossa nova, brazilian rhythm, brazilian popular music. Bossa nova is a style, like jazz, but isn't jazz.
@halconair7587
imaginativelads Bossa Nova
@Marymarmol
No cabe duda que Brasil posee uno de los ritmos más bellos del mundo. El Bossa Nova es exquisito; no hay forma de describirlo simplemente se siente su candente ritmo muy brasileño es ¡hermoso!