BRATTLEBORO — On Saturday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., Vermont Jazz Center presents “A Tribute to Jobim,” a performance by three leading artists from Brazil who enjoyed direct connections with Antônio Carlos Jobim, widely regarded as one of the 20th century's most important songwriters.
The VJC presents pianist/musical director and Grammy Award-winning Hélio Alves, Grammy Award-winning vocalist Maucha Adnet (who for 10 years sang with maestro Jobim), and Grammy Award-winning drummer Duduka da Fonseca.
They are supported by first-call bassist David Finck in an evening of beautiful Bossa Novas and exhilarating sambas.
Jobim's compositions still serve as a musical bridge between Brazil and the United States.
The composer first became known through his association with the Brazilian intellectual, poet, bon vivant, and diplomat Vinicius de Moraes, who hired the then-little-known pianist to write music for his play/movie Black Orpheus. Their collaboration evolved into a fruitful friendship and productive professional relationship.
In 1958, Jobim began an association with the man he considered the originator of Bossa Nova: João Gilberto. Together they fine-tuned the Bossa Nova sound and served as the hub of a growing Brazilian musical party and revolution.
In 1962 American jazz musicians Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd got wind of the sounds emanating from Rio and recorded their derivative - yet swinging - album Jazz Samba.
Following the record's success, Getz returned to the studio, this time with Jobim, Gilberto, and a Brazilian rhythm section. Their version of “The Girl from Ipanema,” sung by Gilberto and his then-wife Astrud, was a huge success that kicked off a stateside Bossa Nova craze.
Jobim wrote many of the songs on Getz/Gilberto, which became one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time and earned four Grammys.
Although Jobim died in 1994, his legacy lives on. He was named by Billboard as one of the top Latin American composers of all time. He was honored, as well, with a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
More importantly, his music lives on in the recordings and concerts of those who continue to interpret his brilliant compositions.
The Nov. 14 concert will give listeners an opportunity to listen to Bossa, Samba, and Brazilian styles played with authenticity and passion by true masters.
Organizers note a direct connection to Jobim permeates these experts' renditions of his songs: “Because they grew up surrounded by his music (two of the group's members actually sang, performed, and recorded with Jobim), this concert will serve as a vehicle for us to feel the real Bossa and Samba sound and experience a living, historical link to one of the most important movements of modern popular music.”