“Spain is going to lead the world in jazz very soon.”

That headline is a comment on a video on Youtube which I just read, from Ray Cabarga.. And he’s wrong – Spain *is* leading already.

After looking up the English Wikipedia page on Antônio Carlos Jobim today, I found the first external link to a tribute site there. And if you scroll down on that tribute site (from Argentina as it seems), what do you find? Right – a video of the St Andreu singers and musicians Rita and Andrea, together with their teacher Joan and some other musicians, performing “So danço Samba”:

So the world *does* know already that today’s best interpretations of these old classics come from Spain.

But I was looking for other versions of Jobim’s “Triste”, and the tribute page not only has the Portuguese lyrics but also a link and an embedded video of the composer himself, together with Elis Regina:

“Triste é viver na solidão
Na dor cruel de uma paixão
Triste é saber que ninguém pode viver de ilusão
Que nunca vai ser, nunca vai dar
O sonhador tem que acordar
Tua beleza é um avião, demais prum pobre coracão
Que pára pra te ver passar
Só pra me maltratar
Triste é viver na solidão”

So nice. But here’s the version from St Andreu, Barcelona, Spain, which lead to the comment in my headline:

And if that music alone dooesn’t knock you off of your feet as it does with me, then go and read the rest of the comments. In my opinion you won’t find a better version today than this or this version to which I had linked and which I had embedded before. So the singer for this piece seems to be Alba Armengou.

Or, as another commenter said: “And the angels did sing.”

Here’s the lead sheet from my New Real Book in case you want to try and play it sourself:

Enjoy. And good luck.

2 Replies to ““Spain is going to lead the world in jazz very soon.””

  1. Hey Wolfgang Lonien , thanks about your article and mention on Jobim tribute. The Jobim tribute has 18 years online showing Tom legacy. About your article I agree, Spain has amazing jazz musicians , for example this St Andreu Group is so talentous doing bossa nova and fussion jazz. I chose St Andreu for So Danço Samba because really they are the best version, as vocal and instrumental arrangements. Have a nice week

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