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EL: With Tom it was exactly the same thing. The more interested you became in
music, the more you learned and so on, the closer you got to - I don't like
this word, but - the closer you got to his "oeuvre"; "oeuvre" is an ugly
term but anyway, the closer you got to his work. You'd become more able to
enjoy it, to play it, and you'd start to see the dimensions. Tom is the
best popular composer I know. In his day he had no equal, anywhere in the
world. I had the pleasure of telling him that several times. One of those
times he asked me: "And what about Michel Legrand?"
LR: Yeah, but Michel Legrand...
EL: I told him, "He doesn't even come close to you".
LR: Not even close.
EL: But I thought it was funny him asking that because it was almost like
he was a little kid.
You're the best
There are great stories that I always recall. For instance: we were on our
way to his house in Ipanema, his house was always open to his friends. We
would play some music, and whenever there was something he liked he'd go to
the piano.
If he didn't like it he'd say something like: "That's cute",
and so on, but we'd know he wasn't paying much attention to it. But when
he really liked something he'd go to the piano because he wanted to learn
it, he was interested. And then he would always invent some new chord,
which we'd like and we'd learn it and so on. The next time 'round, if we
were showing him the same tune, when it came time to play that chord he'd
say something like: "Edu Lobo, you are the best!"
LR: That happened with you too?
EL: It happened with me a few times and with Chico Buarque too.
LR: Give us an example of a composition in which he may have contributed
some chord.
EL: "Prá dizer adeus". When we recorded it he added some chord progressions.
Sergio Lima: I once saw a video on television about the recording of that
album, and I remember there was a very interesting scene where you guys
were almost arguing about...
EL: (the song) "Vento Bravo" ("Fierce Wind").
SL: "Vento Bravo", which was very rare because you were also at the piano.
EL: I don't remember exactly, it was something about the mix. I don't know,
he wanted something in the headphone mix, he wanted something taken out of
the headphone mix, I don't remember exactly. I think it never got to the
point of being an argument, but he said something like: "We're playing on
these little toy pianos", because of the keyboards they had there and,
y'know: "I studied piano for so many years and now I have to play these
little toy pianos..."
Edu & Tom
LR: Edu, How did you come up with the idea of doing a record with Tom?
EL: The project was originally different. The producer was Aloysio (de
Oliveira), and the idea was to do a "with-invited-guests" kind of album,
each one singing one track. And the first person we invited was Tom. We
rehearsed "To say good-bye", and then he said: "Are we gonna do just one,
or can I do two?" And I said, "Of course you can" and he said, "I wanna do
'Canção do Amanhecer' (Morning Song), 'cause I like it a lot". I thought
that was a great idea, so we did the second number. Then he asked Aloysio:
"Gee, it came out so good, this tune, why do we have to stop here?"
Aloysio was thinking fast and just said: "You want to do the whole album
with Edu?"
Now for me this was fantastic, to record this album with Tom, mainly when
it came to singing his compositions, which I adore. It was the greatest
pleasure. It's really good to sing tunes you like and you didn't have to
go through the hassle of having to compose them yourself - it's all the
pleasure and none of the pain. Plus, just spending time with him was
fantastic. We had lots of fun the whole time.
SL: And you've done this constantly, on all your recent albums you always
record something by him.
EL: Always, I always record something of his and in my shows I always have
a tune of his. I'll do one tonight.
LR: Which one will it be?
EL: "This Happy Madness".
LR: The one you recorded on your latest CD.
EL: Exactly. I recorded it because it had to do with the whole thing of
Tom's death coming so unexpectedly.
Rehearsals
LR. How about the rehearsals you did with him for that record? How were they?
EL: We worked out the harmonies at the piano, and he was very careful with
that. We'd play around with the music for awhile, and then write it down
and so on. After that I'd come back the next day with a new chord or
something.
LR: And at that stage it was just the two of you?
EL: Just the two of us.
LR: You on guitar and he on piano.
EL: Yeah, and we would keep rehearsing, going over everything. And it was that same story, Tom was a guy who had no superstar complex,
very simple, very caring with other people.
LR: Very caring and attentive. And he like to ask about everything.
EL: He asked questions about everything. Tom asked questions about
everything, like: "How come you don't like to go out for lunch?" Because
he went out for lunch every day. I don't like to go out for lunch because
I don't like to eat lunch, I prefer dinner, I like to sleep late. "Oh!
okay, because I don't sleep late anymore, but you, when you get to be my
age, you're gonna want to go to bed early like me, and get up real early
too." He wrote in my song book: "Você vai ser um early bird" ("You'll be an
early bird"). I'd say: "I doubt it, because I sleep very late and people
who sleep late don't..." and Tom would be like: "Oh no, you will be, over
time you'll change".
LR: He really got into that habit, early to bed, early to rise, go out and
get the newspaper...
EL: He went to bed very early, like 9 o'clock at night, and then he'd get
up at 5. He played scales every morning and then he'd go out to buy the
newspapers at 7. His routine completely changed, from having been a
nightowl his whole life long. And in the beginning it was hard: "Back in
the days when I was chasing after my monthly rent payment".
A German copyist
When he wanted to get married, Celso Frota, his father-in-law, asked
him to go and live in their house on the Rua Redentor. They built an
extension next to the garage for Tom and Teresa.
EL: He used to play piano at night in the bars, conversation music.
LR: Did arrangements for a lot of singers.
EL: After that he had a period in his life when he developed almost a
repulsion for this business of arranging.
LR: He got sick of it.
SL: But he continued to do the vocal arrangements for his own group.
EL: Well, that he liked because he had his girls there and so on, he'd do
the arrangements on the spot.
LR: But later Paulinho (Jobim) took on part of that role, and Jacques
(Morelenbaum) did also.
EL: But doing an arrangement for Tom is different. I used to kid him, I'd
say he'd gotten this great copyist from Germany, namely Claus Ogerman. He'd
laugh, but you know why? Because he would deliver everything ready to go.
The fact is you don't arrange for Tom, you do an orchestration. He gives
you the music with the intro all ready, all the countermelodies, and then
when he shows you the music he says: "Put the cello here, so it goes like
so", and he'd hum like the instrument he was talking about: "The cellos go
here underneath". And then the arranger would write it down. This is not
to steal any merit from Claus, who is a genius orchestrator, but when Claus
writes for Tom you hear Tom the whole time. It's like half Ravel half
Moussorgsky, like "Pictures at an Exhibition". Ravel didn't add even a
single extra note, there is no "arrangement", he changed nothing, not the
tempo, not anything, except that he's a genius orchestrator so you've got
that beautiful orchestra sound - if you listen to the original piano
version by Moussorgsky, it's exactly the same.
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