The song of the day for Sunday, February 1, 2015 is “Song of the Jet.”
About This Song
“Song of the Jet,” or “Samba do Avião” in the original Portuguese, was written by Antonio Carlos Jobim in 1963. Gene Lees wrote the English lyrics.
About This Version
Today’s song is the first song on our February 2015 album of the month – If I Ruled The World: Songs for the Jet Set. It sets the tone for the album nicely, with the beautiful photograph of Rio de Janeiro on its cover. The arrangement by Don Costa features not only the Ralph Sharon Trio, with Hal Gaylord on bass and Billy Exiner on drums, but also Al Cohn on tenor sax and two Brazilian artists: Carlos Lyra on guitar and Elcio Milito on percussion.
I really love this arrangement and it serves as a terrific start to the album: the song starts slowly with much anticipation. As Bennett starts singing, the tempo is still coming up to speed … he moves into the rhythm of song the beautifully. Whenever I hear this song, I’m ready to jump on a plane and go to Rio!
“Song of the Jet,” as well as If I Ruled The World: Songs for the Jet Set, is available from iTunes.
Please feel free to leave a comment