With this issue the Brazilian Enterprise of Posts and Telegraphs pays homage to one of the most important names of the Brazilian music: the composer Antonio Carlos Jobim Tom Jobim whose love to music has been his main banner in the art of divulging Brazil abroad and charming the public with its chords and songs.

Antonio Carlos Jobim was born at the Conde de Bonfim Street, in the Tijuca area, Rio de Janeiro, to Jorge Jobim diplomat, writer and professor, deceased in 1935, and Nilza Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim, founder of the Brasileiro de Almeida School, in Ipanema, deceased in 1989. His only sister, Helena Jobim, awarded writer, gave him his nickname Tom Tom”.

Tom started his career playing guitar. When he was 14, his stepfather, Celso Frota Pessoa, sent him to Hans Joachim Koellreutter for piano classes. Tom has also studied flute, harmony, orchestration and composition.

He intended to study architecture and attended the first year at the National Faculty of Rio de Janeiro, yet his musical vocation led him to drop out of studies.

In the beginning of his career he worked for approximately three years as pianist at bar and nightclubs in Rio. Then he went to the Continental Records where he would write down in the usual musical notation the melodies for the composers that had no musical education, and make arranges for the recordings.

In 1953, he had his first songs recorded by Sinter Records:

“Incertitude” sang by Mauricy Moura and launched in April 1953; “Thinking of You” and “A Week Ago” sang by Ernani Filho and launched in June of the same year.

In 1954, he had his first success — “Tereza from the Beach” —composed in partnership with Billy Blanco, and sang by Dick Farney and Lúcio Alves. In this same year, also with Billy Blanco, he composed the Symphony of Rio de Janeiro, recorded on 1 O’LP, with interpretations by Dick Farney, Gilberto Milfont, Elizete Cardoso, DOris Monteiro, Lúcio Alves, Os Cariocas, Jorge Goulart, Nora Ney and Emilinha Borba.

Composing with other geniuses of the Brazilian music such as Vinicius de Moraes, Billy Blanco, Dick Farney, Elizete Cardoso, Tom has divulged the Brazilian music and Brazil as well, has conquered space and admiration not only in Brazil but also abroad where he spent part of his life. In the United States of America — USA he made several works some in partnership with Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald.

Tom has won awards and homage all over the world: Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Rio de Janeiro (1990), Grand Commandeur des Arts et Lettres Légion d'Honneur (1989), Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Lisbon (1993), and the Order of Rio Branco (1990).

The works left by Tom Jobim are vast in number, contents and styles. Deceased on December 8, 1994, he remains alive in the heart and memory of his admirers, as are his works that revive from generation to generation.

 JOBIM MUSIC