Meet the Artist - Antonio Carlos Jobim

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• published: 28 Jan 2011
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Tom Jobim / Luiz Tornaghi 1980 Interview LT: That's beautiful. Is that new? TJ: Yes, it's brand new. This is a piece I'm working on for TV Global. LT: Area you writing the lyrics too? TJ: Yes, This is the opening theme for the soap opera. LT: Global's new soap opera, right? TJ: You seem to make me play what I'm always trying to hide. LT: Vinícius was your main songwriting partner, right? TJ: Right. LT: Who is your main partner now? TJ: My dear, today I am my own father. The other day I had to look in the mirror and say: "Look Tom, I'm sorry but . . . today I am my own father". Because I've had many fathers. Good fathers. Many mothers. Good mothers. But now it's up to me, right? We will have to . . . people die . . . and we're left alone, right? Of course, we have the grandchildren, the children . . . but that buddy who'd go to a bar with you to have a beer is no longer there. LT: It is evident that Vinícius' death affected you deeply. He is irreplaceable, isn't he? TJ: Vinícius is irreplaceable. Irreplaceable. By the way, a funny thing happened . . . I went to Florentino the other day and I met Rubem Braga, late at night and we had already had a couple of whiskies . . . and he asked me: "Tom, what have you been up to?" And I said: "Tubem, as amazing as it may sound, I'm writing songs with Vinícius." And he said: "I know . . . Vinícius is really something!" They gave me a couple of children's song lyrics from the TV show "A Arca de Noé" to compose that no one wanted and so they gave it to me . . . and there was a song called "Cachorrinha" . . . So I wrote the lyrics. So Rubem Braga told me: "Vinícius is really something . . . He is always present, isn't he? -- He's always around." I still write songs with Vinícius de Moraes. Paulinho and I were talking about this song by Vinícius that few people know, which goes like this . . . "Homage to Vinícius de Moraes". -- performs with son: Paulinho Jobim -- LT: I know that you've just written two songs with Chico, right? TJ: With Chico, yes. Chico and I have been working together. He is in Italy, in Rome. I've been working a lot. I've worked on so many projects that I've lost count of them. I've been working much more than I would like. LT: Are you recording or is everything still on paper? TJ: I've been recording many new things. I've been recording certain things here, but then I'll go to New York to record an album over there too. Some of them are released here and others are released there. LT: There's been a lot of talk about that song with Caetano, which is supposed to come out but never does. TJ: Well, you know how these things go, Caetano and I are people that go with the flow, right? If we meet, then we work for a while, but if we don't meet then we don't. We don't see each other. There are so many songs . . . Caetano has so many songs, I have so many songs . . . Getting together with Caetano is complicated . . . I have to call him . . . LT: But he lives on the same street . . . TJ: He lives here -- the problem is not the distance. The problem is that he is a very busy man, and so am I. In my life I don't have time to clip my nails, to go pee . . . It's hard. I don't like to bathe in the same water all the time. I like running water. I like to -- you know -- to play a song by Lupcínio, for example. [plays] I enjoy things like that. I don't like the bathe in the same water. The water must go in and out . . . If there is no renewal . . . I really don't like people . . . This thing we talked about, about childhood . . . My childhood is the same as any other, you know? The sun reflecting on the sidewalk, sometimes there were clouds, the sidewalk got darker. Sometimes it was lighter. I believe that the best thing is to live a rich life, you know? Such as Villa-Lobos' which is the life of Brazil, with all the people, all the birds . . . LT: Tom, with this great sensibility that you have, do you think that everyone has the same sensibility? But only a few people manage to express it? Or do you think that there are people who are privileged in that regard? TJ: No. I belileve that everyone has this thing. I believe that everyone has these inner feelings, which have very little to do with the ads on television. Of course, my son, who is very young, will watch a TV ad and repeat that. But it's clear that there's something about him that is independent from the TV ad. I think that human beings are very rich. And I think that in the future everybody will be an artist.