Roland Vonk Rotterdam, Holland, December 9, 1998     Listen to "Perdido nos teus olhos" in Real Audio. Music: Antonio Carlos Jobim Lyrics: Newton Mendonça

There are moments in life that you will never forget, because they are the beginning of something new and important, of something that stays with you from then on. One such moment for me was more than twenty years ago today, when at my sister's place I first heard a record by Astrud Gilberto. I was really overwhelmed by it. Here was a sound from another world, from another planet, it seemed. Here was something I had to know more about. The next day I bought the record, later on I bought more records by Astrud Gilberto, I discovered João Gilberto, I came across Elis Regina and many, many other Brazilian artists. Within short it was almost only Brazilian music that was heard in my little apartment in Rotterdam, Holland. Now I've always admired people who create things, and especially music. Through the years I found out that a lot of the Brazilian songs that I liked so much were written by a man called Antonio Carlos Jobim. If there was one Brazilian artist who intrigued me, it was him. Through his music I had also become interested in the country, in Brazil. In 1986 I had time and money, I took ten lessons of Portuguese and bought myself a ticket for Rio de Janeiro. After little over a week in Rio, I had lunch with mister Jobim. I'm a journalist, and journalism is the best alibi to indulge one's hobbies, isn't it? - so I had called Jobim to ask for an interview. During the interview, in his favourite restaurant Plataforma 1, my admiration for Jobim only grew. Tom Jobim, as Brazilians call him, turned out to be a very pleasant and intelligent man. A man with an open mind. This meeting also added to my admiration for his music. I started to collect records he has made. In 1987 a biography of Jobim was published in Brazil, and the discography in that book served as a guidance for my record collection. My goal became to have at least one recording of every song Jobim has written. That way I would get to know what all these songs sound like. During the years, during many visits to Brazil, and during many a day in archives and second hand record stores I managed to complete my collection, except for one. I couldn't find the one recording that was ever made of the song Perdido Nos Teus Olhos, a song Jobim wrote in the fifties, together with lyricist Newton Mendonça. Perdido Nos Teus Olhos was, as far I knew, only recorded by singer Dick Farney, and that recording was only issued on a 45 record. In november 1998 I went to Brazil for the 10th time to search for this particular record. The Dutch broadcasting corporation Vpro paid for my trip to make a programme about this search for Dutch national radio. I went, I looked and did I find the record? Nope. But I found something better. In São Paulo I met Luiz Roberto Oliveira, the man who created the Internet site you're on at this moment, and with some effort Luiz managed to remember the lyrics of Perdido Nos Teus Olhos. He even remembered the music. Bit by bit he reconstructed the song on the piano. Luiz has a recording studio in which he makes music for Brazilian TV commercials, and in his studio he made a wonderful recording of Perdido Nos Teus Olhos for me. Luiz sang the song, accompanying himself on the guitar. I left his office with this recording on a CD. I left his office, a happy man. Antonio Carlos Jobim has brought wonderful music in my life, and with it, wonderful people.