Composer Jobim

The unexpected death of Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim is a great loss to our world of music (“Jobim Was More Than the King of Bossa Nova,” Dec. 9). We are all aware of his more popular commercial successes such as “The Girl From Ipanema,” which brought the bossa nova (literal translation “new thing”) to our shores, but his other compositions “How Insensitive (Insensatez),” “Desafindo” and “One Note Samba” will never die.

His ‘60s albums, particularly the ’67 Grammy-nominated teaming with Frank Sinatra, were superb. I had the privilege of preparing his RCA compact disc reissues for release (a labor of love) and consider Jobim the “Gershwin of the Southern Hemisphere.”

My lifelong wish to see him perform was finally realized at the Hollywood Bowl. A jovial, worldly man and a loving father, he was greatly concerned with the threatened ecology of his native Brazil. He re-created the sounds of rare jungle birds on his later and largely experimental albums.

Thankfully Jobim’s melodies will survive, but the music world has lost an extraordinary talent. Thank you, Antonio, for hours and hours of musical pleasure.

DON WARDELL

Palm Springs