“Airport Jazz?”, I hear you say. You might guess this posting is going to discuss Brian Eno’s “Ambient One: Music for Airports”. Much as I admire the layered tape loop construction of that album – in 1978 before technology made that activity a breeze – this is not the topic today.
I learned this week that there are two airports named after jazz musicians: “Louis Armstrong” in New Orleans and “Antonio Carlos Jobim” in Rio de Janeiro. With the Olympics officially underway, it seems appropriate to explore the music of Antonio Carlos, or “Tom” Jobim.
Jobim, 1927-1994, was a singer, composer, arranger, songwriter, pianist and guitarist. He was the primary force behind the creation of the bossa nova musical style. “Garota de Impanema” (The Girl from Ipanema) is his most famous composition and it has been covered more than 240 times.
Here are the original and my favorite cover (that I’m aware of, not having reviewed all 24)) by Stan Getz.
I heard another Jobim song on the work commute and the beautiful trombone on top of the insistent bossa nova percussion really caught my ear. Here is “Captain Bacardi”:
Let’s start a movement to name more airports after famous musicians rather than politicians and other dignitaries. I submit that the music of great artists will live much longer in our culture than the contributions of all but a few of the politicians and others that airports have been named for.
I have enjoyed the recent trend of showcasing local, live music in airports. Houston Hobby has a great variety and it really takes the stress out of travel to stop and listen for a few minutes. Nashville always has a number of great live acts to sample. New Orleans has a stage set up but I’ve only heard a band performing on it once – on the way back from jazzfest this year.