Making music sound difficult is easy. Creating subtly subversive music and making it sound easy demands a special talent. Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim made a mark in American culture with music of deceptive simplicity.
Part of the repertoire in concert halls or heard in the piped-in music in malls or elevators, his songs are by now part of the American soundtrack, from “Desafinado,” his first US hit in 1962, and “Garota de Ipanema” (The Girl from Ipanema), a massive, global hit in 1965, to “Chega De Saudade” (No More Blues), “Insensatez” (How Insensitive), and “Aguas de Março” (Waters of March).
Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim was also known as Tom Jobim, a variant of Ton Ton, the nickname his sister Helena once gave him. “Ah, the critics in Brazil began to say, ‘Tom is an American name.’ ,” he once lamented in an interview, throwing his hands up in mock despair.
The legacy of Jobim, who died in 1994 and would have been celebrating his 100th birthday next January 25, will be honored Friday (November 6) at the opening concert of the 2026-27 Jazz Roots series at the Knight Concert Hall at the Adrienne Arsht Center.
Titled “Jobim and The Music of Brazil,” the tribute features pianist and singer Eliane Elias, virtuoso clarinetist Anat Cohen, a non-Brazilian champion of Brazilian music; Trio da Paz, comprising guitarist Romero Lubambo, bassist Nilson Matta and drummer Duduka Da Fonseca; pianist Shelly Berg, and University of Miami Frost School of Music’s Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra with resident conductor Scott Flavin.
