Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, TV show after recording a beautiful album together in 1967

Sinatra and Jobim: the story of a legendary record:

A historic meeting in the world of music and its anecdotes, which are not few. Sinatra and Jobim. Oscar Plasencia talks to us about it.

An unexpected call
Vinicius de Moraes told his friends that when Antonio Carlos Jobim received a call from someone who claimed to be Frank Sinatra, he hung up, but not before dedicating a few insults. "I thought it was a joke that we friends who knew his unconditional admiration for Sinatra were playing on him." The truth is that when Sinatra managed to speak to Jobim he went straight to the point as was his style: "I'm Sinatra, I want to make a record with you and I would like to know if you are interested in the idea." Jobim, with his legs shaking and no trace of saliva in his mouth, only managed to say, "It would be an honor."

It is very difficult to understand today what a call from a person like Frank Sinatra means. No current musician has managed to accumulate the power, prestige, glamour and inaccessibility that Sinatra had at the same time. Perhaps The Beatles at the time came close, but there were four of them.

A few days later, Jobim traveled to Los Angeles, and Sinatra to Barbados to try to recover from the marital crisis with Mia Farrow.

Jobim stayed at the Sunset-Marquis hotel, where they had already installed a piano and a fridge full of drinks, and immediately got to work with Claus Ogerman, the arranger he hired to take care of all the musical direction of the album. Day after day, Jobim and Ogerman reviewed the delicate mechanisms of Girl from Ipanema, Dindi, Corcovado, Meditation, Insensatez, Inútil paisagem, O amor em paz, being aware that no matter how carefully they worked on the structure of each song, Sinatra could change everything in the same recording studio.

Jobim was about to turn forty. There could be no better gift for him than to play with Sinatra.

But the days went by and the singer gave no sign of life. In a letter he wrote to Vinicius de Moraes he told him that he spent every day watching TV, eating and drinking while waiting for his call. "I keep wondering if he hasn't regretted it."

Another doubt that worried Jobim was how Sinatra would adapt to his music, so different from what Frank was used to playing. Bossa nova was a new way of making music. It maintains its rhythm by altering the syncopation, privileges the harmonic side and presents a new language with intimate lyrics and the use of metalanguage. A music that demands singing as if speaking into a woman's ear.

The producer Sonny Burke called him to tell him that they would begin recording on the 30th. Jobim immediately realized that from that date on, it would be all or nothing for his career.

A historic meeting:
On the 30th, Sinatra arrived half an hour earlier than expected at the recording studio. Something never seen before. He immediately began to rehearse Jobim's songs. He hummed, whistled, changed things.

The control booth began to fill up with people. Little by little the musicians arrived. One of them commented, "Absolutely everything and we were all under the Sinatra persona." Jobim demanded the drummer for the recording. When Jobim arrived, he did not seem nervous: after all, he had already recorded many times with João Gilberto, another musical genius who was not easy to work with.

The recording:
At eight o'clock in the evening, Sinatra turns to the conductor and says: "Let's see, give me an A." The A quickly passes from one section to another: from the piano to the strings and from the strings to the woodwinds. They play the song once. Then... a long break and a tense wait. "Tempo?" “No, the tempo is right. You have to stick to it.” Sinatra speaks with complete confidence: “There is only one tempo for this song; any other would not be the right one for the case.”

They start with Dindi. Everything goes smoothly. When the song ends, Sinatra comments, “the last time I sang that low was when I had laryngitis.”

In the next song, Jobim is going to sing with Sinatra. Tom only seems to be aware of his own heartbeat. Sinatra and Jobim exchange a knowing glance, and the last note of the song ends. All the musicians are still, expectant, until the cymbals stop vibrating. Sinatra smiles. It is clear that he has liked it. Tom approaches Sinatra, puts his hand on his shoulder: “This is bossa nova.”

Those who know Sinatra well comment that they have rarely seen him so excited and passionate about a musical project as he is about this one.

When Jobim died, Sinatra said: "I am deeply saddened by the passing of my friend Tom Jobim. My experience with him was so rewarding and creative, as were the many hours we spent talking and reflecting in the evenings. The world has lost one of its most talented musicians and I have lost a wonderful friend."