Águas de Março

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Águas de Março ( Eng . Water of March ; Eng. Waters of March ) is a Bossa Nova . Text and melody are by Antônio Carlos Jobim .

background

In 1972 Jobim wrote a Brazilian-Portuguese lyrics and an English lyrics with different content for the same melody. In the Portuguese version for Brazil, March means autumn, rainstorm and the end ("É o fundo do poço, é o fim do caminho, no rosto o desgosto, é um pouco sozinho"), but in English it means spring in the northern hemisphere (" And the riverbank talks / of the waters of March, it's the promise of life / in your heart in your heart "). Both lyrics are also important poems.

According to a 2001 poll by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo , Águas de Março was voted the best Brazilian song of all time by more than 200 Brazilian journalists, musicians and artists.

The lyrics do not tell a story but show a sequence of images as a collage ; almost every sentence begins with "É ..." ("It is ..."), Impression follows Impression.

In both versions, “it” is a stick, a stone, a shard of glass, a scratch, a rock, etc. The English version lacks references to specifically Brazilian trees and the local schnapps (“É a garrafa de cana ”).

Both versions speak of water as a "promise of life" as a positive vision. The inspiration for Águas de Março comes from the rainiest month in Rio de Janeiro with its sudden storms with heavy rains and floods.

The text and the music allude impressionistically on streams of rain that run down the gutter and pull things like the sticks, stones and broken glass mentioned with them.

The song was used by Coca-Cola for a television advertisement in the mid-1980s.

Charles A. Perrone, an expert on the Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) wrote about this song in his doctoral thesis, an abridged version of which was published in the Brazilian magazine Letras e Letras da MPB (1988). He referred to sources such as the folkloric samba-de-matuto and the classical poem in premodern Brazilian literature.

Recordings

  • The best, but not the first recording, is the duet by Jobim and Elis Regina , from the album Elis & Tom .
  • João Gilberto's recording on the 1973 album João Gilberto is known for the noticeable deviation from the original in rhythm and time.
  • David Byrne and Marisa Monte recorded the song for the Red Hot + Rio sampler .
  • Susannah McCorkle recorded a bilingual version for the album From Bessie to Brazil .
  • Oscar Castro-Neves recorded an English version.
  • Art Garfunkel recorded the song for the album Breakaway (1975).
  • Jazz singer Jane Monheit recorded an acclaimed English version.
  • The Japanese group Cibo Matto recorded the song in Portuguese for their EP Super Relax (1997).
  • Al Jarreau recorded the song for the album A Twist of Jobim (1997).
  • Holly Cole recorded the song for the album Holly Cole (2007).
  • Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '77 recorded the song for the album Vintage 74 (1974).
  • Cassandra Wilson took the song for the album Belly Of The Sun on.
  • Georges Moustaki recorded a version in French in 1973, translated with the support of Jobim: Les Eaux de Mars, album: Déclaration

swell

  1. ↑ Elma Lia Nascimento: Calling the Tune. In: Brazzil. September 2001
  2. ↑ Une chanson, une histoire - "Aguas de março" ( Memento from August 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Web links