After our rooftop rehearsal, it's time for lunch.
We wander the nearby streets, looking for a good place to eat.
One block back from the beach, my friends find what they are looking for - a "por kilo" restaurant. It's a buffet lunch where you weigh your plate and pay by the kilo.
The food is good and inexpensive, and we all eat a substantial meal.
Now we can do some tourism. We've planned to make a "pilgrimage" to all the places honouring the famous Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim, who wrote so many of the songs we will perform tomorrow night.
We all take the Metro to Arpoador and walk along the beach towards Ipanema. We're looking for the statue of Jobim, but perhaps we've walked in the wrong direction. We turn right along Avenida Vinicius de Moraes (named after Jobim's musical partner and lyricist). Soon we come to the café Garota de Ipanema, where Jobim and de Moraes wrote their famous song "The Girl From Ipanema", inspired by a girl who passed by the café each day on her way to the beach. The place is dominated by enlarged prints of the original handwritten score, and lots of other memorabilia is also on display.
It's a warm day, and we sit down in this café and have some beers.
Further up the avenue, we come to the excellent music shop Toca Vinicius, but we continue on our way, because we're looking for Tom Jobim's house. Walking up this street last year, I didn't realise how close I was, and I was really annoyed to have missed it.
The address can be found in a 1974 song by Vinicius de Moraes, "Letter to Tom":
Rua Nascimento Silva, cento e sete
Você ensinando pra Elizete
As canções de canção de amore demais
107 Nascimento Silva Street,
You (were) teaching Elizete
Some soppy love songs...
So that's the street we're looking for.
The song expresses a nostalgic view of the "old days" of Rio:
Lembra que tempo feliz, ai que saudade,
Ipanema era só felicidade...
Remember such a happy time, how I miss it,
Ipanema was pure happiness...
As we come to each cross-street, our sense of anticipation builds - is this it?
Finally we take a right turn and arrive at number 107.
It's a 3-storey apartment building. Current residents and their visitors are coming and going through the gate. We stand outside and gawk at and photograph the facade, with its commemorative plaques "Home of Antonio Carlos Jobim"; "Here he lived from 1954-1960".
For a moment I feel a bit sorry for the residents, then Enéias points out that if you chose to live in this particular building you would actually be signing up for this kind of interest from tourists.
I imagine that Tom lived on the top floor - he wrote some extra words for the song, which suggest that the view had been built out since he'd left ("you could see a bit of sky and the Redeemer")
As we walk back along the Ipanema beach towards Arpoador, the sea is turquoise and the sunshine through the salt spray creates a silver mist. Finally, we spot the statue of Jobim, guitar balanced on his shoulder, strolling along the beachfront.
We take lots of photos of the team.
As we prepare for our show tomorrow night, Tom Jobim is with us in spirit - and in bronze.
We wander the nearby streets, looking for a good place to eat.
One block back from the beach, my friends find what they are looking for - a "por kilo" restaurant. It's a buffet lunch where you weigh your plate and pay by the kilo.
The food is good and inexpensive, and we all eat a substantial meal.
Now we can do some tourism. We've planned to make a "pilgrimage" to all the places honouring the famous Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim, who wrote so many of the songs we will perform tomorrow night.
We all take the Metro to Arpoador and walk along the beach towards Ipanema. We're looking for the statue of Jobim, but perhaps we've walked in the wrong direction. We turn right along Avenida Vinicius de Moraes (named after Jobim's musical partner and lyricist). Soon we come to the café Garota de Ipanema, where Jobim and de Moraes wrote their famous song "The Girl From Ipanema", inspired by a girl who passed by the café each day on her way to the beach. The place is dominated by enlarged prints of the original handwritten score, and lots of other memorabilia is also on display.
It's a warm day, and we sit down in this café and have some beers.
Further up the avenue, we come to the excellent music shop Toca Vinicius, but we continue on our way, because we're looking for Tom Jobim's house. Walking up this street last year, I didn't realise how close I was, and I was really annoyed to have missed it.
The address can be found in a 1974 song by Vinicius de Moraes, "Letter to Tom":
Rua Nascimento Silva, cento e sete
Você ensinando pra Elizete
As canções de canção de amore demais
107 Nascimento Silva Street,
You (were) teaching Elizete
Some soppy love songs...
So that's the street we're looking for.
The song expresses a nostalgic view of the "old days" of Rio:
Lembra que tempo feliz, ai que saudade,
Ipanema era só felicidade...
Remember such a happy time, how I miss it,
Ipanema was pure happiness...
As we come to each cross-street, our sense of anticipation builds - is this it?
Finally we take a right turn and arrive at number 107.
It's a 3-storey apartment building. Current residents and their visitors are coming and going through the gate. We stand outside and gawk at and photograph the facade, with its commemorative plaques "Home of Antonio Carlos Jobim"; "Here he lived from 1954-1960".
For a moment I feel a bit sorry for the residents, then Enéias points out that if you chose to live in this particular building you would actually be signing up for this kind of interest from tourists.
I imagine that Tom lived on the top floor - he wrote some extra words for the song, which suggest that the view had been built out since he'd left ("you could see a bit of sky and the Redeemer")
As we walk back along the Ipanema beach towards Arpoador, the sea is turquoise and the sunshine through the salt spray creates a silver mist. Finally, we spot the statue of Jobim, guitar balanced on his shoulder, strolling along the beachfront.
We take lots of photos of the team.
As we prepare for our show tomorrow night, Tom Jobim is with us in spirit - and in bronze.
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