I experienced it this summer, like many summers before. A perfect summer evening with sunset at 10pm, 80 degrees, & a sky slowly hanging out its stars. I am a bit lubricated, in the back garden & the soundtrack for the twilight is Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (1967). This curious collaboration brought forth a nearly perfect album. I love Brazilian music & I am enamored of the Portuguese language, & most significant for me, Jobim is the composer of one of my favorite songs, a composition that I wish to be played at my memorial service. Take Note.

Antonio Carlos Jobim was brought in to our relationship by each of us separately. While taking a break from making out, The man that would become my husband & I were already madly in love with the same man. He was the best export from Brazil since coffee & the waxing of ladies’ Copacabana parts.

Even if they can’t name him right away as the composer, just about everybody knows some of the bossa nova music of Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim. His seductive melodies have become part of the standard song repertoire throughout the world.

Jobim was born in l927 in Rio de Janeiro. He was a "beach boy" hanging out in the bars & coffeehouses along the white sand of Copacabana and Ipanema. He was immersed in his first love & he never did get around to becoming an architect as he had planned. So many kinds of music were popular in Brazil when Jobim was a young man in the 1940s, including the delicate harmonies of the French impressionists & American jazz. Jobim absorbed them in the the music of Brazil: the fast & fiery Afro-Brazilian sambas & the lush if lazy, Moorish ballads of Portuguese settlers.

Jobim creatively combined elements of all these styles into a fresh new “now” sound. He had his first big international hit with Desafinado, recorded by tenor saxophonist Stan Getz & guitarist Charlie Byrd in 1962. Check out Getz/João Gilberto album with Jobim’s creation that made musical history-The Boy From Ipanema featuring Getz, guitarist João Gilberto, &, as a last-minute addition, Gilberto’s wife- Astrud, on vocals. The entire album is stocked with superb Jobim songs, marvelously arranged.

I have a large selection of music form Brazil in my collection & Jobim’s work has been covered by many American artists. Add at least one of his albums to his collection.

His composition- Águas de Março is one of the most important songs in my life filled with songs. It is a collage, the musical version of The Husband’s assemblages. It is also a list song, & I love a list.

In both the Portuguese & English: a stick, a stone, a sliver of glass, a scratch, a cliff, a knot in the wood, a fish, a pin, the end of the road. The Waters Of March, the rainiest season in Brazil & the end of summer. This song gives me the image of the passing of daily life & the progression towards death. In both langauges, the lyrics speak of "the promise of life”. Regretful/Happy.


Jobim made sublime music to the end of his life. He died in 1994.

Águas de Março

Your Host & the Husband circa 1980

A stick, a stone,

It's the end of the road,

It's the rest of a stump,

It's a little alone

It's a sliver of glass,

It is life, it's the sun,

It is night, it is death,

It's a trap, it's a gun

The oak when it blooms,

A fox in the brush,

A knot in the wood,

The song of a thrush

The wood of the wind,

A cliff, a fall,

A scratch, a lump,

It is nothing at all

It's the wind blowing free,

It's the end of the slope,

It's a beam, it's a void,

It's a hunch, it's a hope

& the river bank talks

Of the waters of March,

It's the end of the strain,

The joy in your heart

The foot, the ground,

The flesh & the bone,

The beat of the road,

A slingshot's stone

A fish, a flash,

A silvery glow,

A fight, a bet,

The range of a bow

The bed of the well,

The end of the line,

The dismay in the face,

It's a loss, it's a find

A spear, a spike,

A point, a nail,

A drip, a drop,

The end of the tale

A truckload of bricks

In the soft morning light,

The shot of a gun

In the dead of the night

A mile, a must,

A thrust, a bump,

It's a girl, it's a rhyme,

It's a cold, it's the mumps

The plan of the house,

The body in bed,

& the car that got stuck,

It's the mud, it's the mud

Afloat, adrift,

A flight, a wing,

A hawk, a quail,

The promise of spring

& the riverbank talks

Of the waters of March,

It's the promise of life

It's the joy in your heart

A stick, a stone,

It's the end of the road

It's the rest of a stump,

It's a little alone

A snake, a stick,

It is John, it is Joe,

It's a thorn in your hand

& a cut in your toe

A point, a grain,

A bee, a bite,

A blink, a buzzard,

A sudden stroke of night

A pin, a needle,

A sting, a pain,

A snail, a riddle,

A wasp, a stain

A pass in the mountains,

A horse & a mule

In the distance the shelves

Rode 3 shadows of blue

& the riverbank talks

Of the waters of March,

It's the promise of life

In your heart, in your heart

A stick, a stone,

The end of the road,

The rest of a stump,

A lonesome road

A sliver of glass,

A life, the sun,

A knife, a death,

The end of the run

& the riverbank talks

Of the waters of March,

It's the end of all strain,

It's the joy in your heart.

Jobim

1971