Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim (January 25, 1927 – December 8, 1994) Click the image for his music.

Antônio Carlos Jobim, often known as Tom Jobim, is widely regarded as one of the most important songwriters of the 20th century.

Many of Jobim’s songs are jazz standards. American jazz singers Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra prominently featured Jobim’s songs on their albums Ella Abraça Jobim (1981), and Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967), respectively. The 1996 CD Wave: The Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook included performances of Jobim tunes by Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and Toots Thielemans. Jobim was an innovator in the use of sophisticated harmonic structures in popular song. Some of his melodic twists, like the melody insisting on the major seventh of the chord, became common use in jazz after him.

Tom Jobim was a Brazilian songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, and pianist/guitarist. 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. Widely known as the composer of Garota de Ipanema (The Girl from Ipanema), one of the most recorded songs of all time, Jobim has left a large number of 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.

A key event in making Jobim’s music known in the English speaking world was his collaboration with the American jazz saxophonist Stan Getz, João Gilberto and Gilberto’s wife at the time, Astrud Gilberto, which resulted in two albums, Getz/Gilberto (1963) and Getz/Gilberto Vol. 2 (1964). The release of Getz/Gilberto created a bossa nova craze in the United States, and subsequently internationally. Getz had previously recorded Jazz Samba with Charlie Byrd (1962), and Jazz Samba Encore! with Luiz Bonfá (1964). Jobim wrote and played piano on many of the songs on Getz/Gilberto, which became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time, and turned Astrud Gilberto, who sang on The Girl from Ipanema and Corcovado, into an international sensation.

Gabriela Tom Jobim: