Other Voices:
From The Label:
Recorded in the bewitching atmosphere of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s home overlooking Rio de Janeiro, the trio Morelenbaum2/Sakamoto provide a revealing new collection of the music of Jobim, the master of Bossa Nova. Pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto joins cellist Jaques Morelenbaum and singer Paula Morelenbaum – both long associated with Jobim and his music – on the recording, with a guest appearance by Jobim’s son Paulo.
Sakamoto plays Jobim’s own piano on every track of Casa, recorded in the composer’s Rio home, with its inspiring views of Corcovado and Lagoa. The recording venue became a part of the very sound of the CD. Birdsongs and the chirp of crickets were heard through the open windows of the house while the trio made the recording, and the sounds of the waves and the beach scene at Leblon have been incorporated into the final mix of several tracks.
Joining Sakamoto are the Morelenbaums, who performed and recorded extensively with Jobim in his last decade. The 17 tracks of Casa explore hidden treasures from the Jobim song catalogue and introduce music by Jobim that has never before been recorded
Recording Casa in Jobim’s home added an intensely personal quality to the music making, which features the first professional recording of “Tema para Ana,” a love song Jobim wrote for his wife Ana. International audiences will discover the rarely heard “Chanson pour Michelle” – dedicated to Michel Legrand – written by Jobim for the soundtrack of a TV soap opera and previously available only on a rare vinyl LP. Paulo Jobim suggested the song to the trio, as well as a new version of the standard “Esperança Perdida” that features a different introduction. Sakamoto’s affinity for both Jobim and French impressionism picks up echoes of Satie in “Imagina,” Ravel in “Estrada Branca” and, reaching further back, Chopin in “Sabiá.” “Bonita” inspires a true bossa nova arrangement, with a guest appearance by Paulo Jobim and the atmospheric touch of Sakamoto’s own DAT recording of ocean waves and beach sounds.
Fondly known in his homeland as Tom, Jobim became – as with the guitarist Joao Gilberto – one of the defining figures in the Bossa Nova movement that transformed Brazilian music and became an international sensation in the 1960s. A tireless songwriter, Jobim turned out such hits as “The Girl from Ipanema,” “Desafinado,” “Meditation,” “Corcovado,” “The Waters of March” and many more which transcended the bossa nova craze and became enduring classics. Like Jobim, Sakamoto is a classically trained musician with an affinity for French impressionist music. Jaques Morelenbaum – a cellist and composer who is also one of Brazil’s premiere arrangers and record producers – had collaborated with Sakamoto on three original albums and several world tours during the 1990s.
“Sakamoto’s musicality felt so close to that of the maestro, and this fact deeply impressed me,” said Luciana de Moraes, the daughter of Jobim’s legendary collaborator Vinicius de Moraes, when she heard Casa. “I might say that I had never heard such a close translation of the maestro’s melodies, and I had the privilege of listening to Tom playing many times at my grandma’s place when I was a child. What I liked most about this CD – besides the harmonic perfection, the repertoire and the interpretation – was that familiar atmosphere that takes us back to one of those evenings at Tom’s house, when we talked about love, music and poetry, while in the background the most perfect Brazilian songs filled the night air. As my father wisely said in one of his lyrics, celebrating Brazilian composers, ‘we are one family, an island made of love.’ Welcome to it, maestro Sakamoto.”
