It’s the month of March — what does it suggest to you? Like a lion, like a lamb? St. Patrick’s Day? The Ides of March? March Madness — or March Mudness as the snow retreats?
For me, one of the associations is a song by Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim, often shortened to Tom Jobim, or just Jobim. I’m of an age to remember when Bossa Nova swept America, and a huge number of the songs came from Jobim.
This particular one had escaped my notice until just a few years ago, but I find it’s particularly infectious. To quote from the wikipedia entry about it,
...In 2001, “Águas de Março" was named as the all-time best Brazilian song in a poll of more than 200 Brazilian journalists, musicians and other artists conducted by Brazil's leading daily newspaper, Folha de S.Paulo.[1] It was also voted by the Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone as the second greatest Brazilian song.[2]
The inspiration for "Águas de Março" came from Rio de Janeiro's rainiest month. March is typically marked by sudden storms with heavy rains and strong winds that cause flooding in many places around the city. The lyrics and the music have a constant downward progression much like the water torrent from those rains flowing in the gutters, which typically would carry sticks, stones, bits of glass, and almost everything and anything.
The description notes that the lyrics do not tell a story — instead they are a collage of images, chosen in part for the sound of the words. It sounds like nonsense in part, but between the images, the chord progressions in the melody, and the recurring refrain about the waters of March, it can still sweep you away.
For Northern Hemisphere listeners, March is somewhere between the end of winter and the beginning of Spring; it’s the opposite for those in the Southern Hemisphere, going from fall into winter. There’s a comparable switch going on hearing the song in the original Portuguese and with English lyrics, both by Jobim.
I’m going to give you versions of both, the first with Elis Regina and Jobim in Portuguese, the second in English by Basia Trzetrzelewska. Here’s the first; some consider the two of them performing it together to be the definitive version:
Here’s the second:
This is a song that has been recorded by dozens of artists in multiple interpretations, in the original languages and in new translations. You can find the Portuguese and English lyrics side by side here.
If you’ve never heard this before, I hope you will enjoy it. If it’s a favorite of yours, or just a song you’ve heard, feel free to comment about what version you’ve heard and what performer you think does it best.
And the riverbank talks
of the waters of March,
It's the end of all strain,
It's the joy in your heart.