When this post goes online, I’ll be enjoying a few days of strictly non-business vacation in New York City. But not wanting to skip a week of BMoF, here’s a lovely song by Tom Jobim, ‘Chansong’ (from one of his last albums, Passarim of 1987), which begins:
When I arrived in New York
The immigration officer asked me
Where have you been, Mister Bim?
Where have you been, Jo?
You've been abroad for too long, Mister Bim
Haven't you been?
(Most of the song is in English, just a few words in Portuguese here and there.) Tom Jobim lived for many years in New York, and in fact died there in 1994. Naturally, his heart and soul belonged to Rio de Janeiro forever, but New York became an important part of his life as well.
By the way, for those who haven’t heard of it yet: a wonderful documentary on Tom Jobim, directed by the legendary Brazilian film director Nelson Pereira dos Santos, was released a few months ago (including screenings at the Cannes film festival) and is an absolute must-see for all music-lovers and movie-lovers -- check here for the official trailer. (Sadly, I haven’t yet had the chance to see it, can’t wait!)
Still within the New York & Brazilian music theme: one of the best places to listen to Brazilian music in NYC is the Zinc Bar on Sundays, with performances by pianist Cidinho Teixeira and band (and belated thanks to philosopher-musician Yuval Avnur, who took me there for the first time back in 2003).
But with no further ado (as I still need to pack…), here is ‘Chansong’. The video is super cheesy, but that sort of adds to the charm of the song...
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