Even if you started listening to and singing his songs when you were a 10-year-old and they accompanied all of your life, you can’t improvise a tribute to Antônio Carlos Jobim. To recreate the sentiment and sensitivity of the Brazilian master, you need to be aware of your abilities and limits next to a connoisseur of his 40-year career and works.

That is why, even for a diva like Carminho, who has become one of the most recognised voices of Portugal and Fado, it would have been a delicate and risky task.

Four years ago, she was invited by Jobim’s family members to re-interpret some of their husband, father or grandfather’s songs. She picked 14 tunes (the most Portuguese ones), invited some Brazilian friends – from Marisa Monte to Chico Buarque – and gave life to an emotional homage to the Maestro Soberano of Brazilian music titled Carminho Canta Tom Jobim.

On the 17^th of November, accompanied by Paulo and Daniel Jobim, and legendary cellist Jaques Morelenbaum, the Lisbon-born artist will perform her interpretation of Jobim’s tunes at the Barbican part of the EFG London Jazz Festival and you will have the privilege of listening to how fado can smoothly go hand-in-hand with bossa nova as Portuguese and Brazilian music reinstates their everlasting bond.

Photo ©: Leo Aversa