Antonio Carlos Jobim, music · Vinícius de Moraes, lyrics · O Morro Não Tem Vez; English words 'Somewhere in the Hills' by Ray Gilbert
Favela
Favela, or O Morro Não Tem Vez, is a 1963 song by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes. Its Portuguese title loosely means the hillside slums are given no chance, and arrangers keep giving it new . Jair Rodrigues, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Wes Montgomery and Ella Fitzgerald all recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with a Portuguese vocal in Brazil, then moves to the 1963 Getz and Bonfá saxophone record and Jobim's own piano version. Later steps add a Brazilian jazz trio, a singer, a jazz guitarist with an orchestra, an English-language vocal and a recent Brazilian band.
Jair Rodrigues sang the song on his 1963 Philips LP O Samba Como Ele É, where it is the eighth track. The journal Per Musi counts it as the first recording of the song, and Wikipedia lists a 1962 single by Pedrinho Rodrigues before it.
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Listen for
Rodrigues sings the Portuguese words, and the whole track lasts under three minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Learn the melody by ear from this track, then play it slowly over the two that rock through the opening section, and , one chord per .
Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfá recorded it in New York on February 8, 1963, with Antonio Carlos Jobim on guitar in the band. Verve released it on Jazz Samba Encore! that April.
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Listen for
Getz plays tenor saxophone out front, with two guitars and two bass players behind him, and the track runs nearly seven minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the opening eight slowly, one per bar: , , A13, G13, A13, G13, , A13♯9. If 13th chords are new, play and first.
“O Morro Não Tem Vez (Favela)”, The Composer of Desafinado, Plays
Jobim recorded the song as an instrumental at A&R Studios in New York on May 9, 1963, with Claus Ogerman arranging. Verve released it that August on The Composer of Desafinado, Plays.
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Listen for
This is an instrumental. Jobim plays a piano solo, and the arrangement around him is by Claus Ogerman.
Try it on your instrument
Play the 's slowly, one at a time: , , , , then with , with , Am7 and . Listen for how the section settles on Am7.
The Sambalanço Trio formed in São Paulo in 1964 and made its first album that year, with this tune as track 3. Its drummer, Airto Moreira, later moved to the United States.
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Listen for
This is an instrumental for piano, bass and drums, and the track runs under four minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the one per : , , Dm7, Am7, Dm7, Am7, then with , and . Notice how the two-chord rocking opens into the last two bars.
“O Morro (Não Tem Vez)”, The Astrud Gilberto Album
Astrud Gilberto recorded her first solo album in Hollywood on January 27 and 28, 1965, with Jobim on guitar and arrangements by Marty Paich. The album reached number 41 on the Billboard 200.
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Listen for
Gilberto sings, and the album's band has piano, guitar, bass, horns and strings, so listen for which of them you hear around her voice.
Try it on your instrument
Play the 's last four slowly: with , with , Am7 and . Listen for how this track lands on Am7.
Wes Montgomery with the Oliver Nelson Orchestra · 1965 · Easy listening
“O Morro (Não Tem Vez)”, Goin' Out of My Head
Wes Montgomery recorded it on December 22, 1965, at Van Gelder Studio in New Jersey with Oliver Nelson conducting a large studio band. It came out in 1966 on Goin' Out of My Head.
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Listen for
Montgomery plays guitar out front, and Nelson's horns and surround him.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last two of the , with and then , and go straight back to for the second .
“Somewhere in the Hills (Favela)”, Ella Abraça Jobim
Ella Fitzgerald recorded the Jobim songbook album Ella Abraça Jobim in September 1980, with Norman Granz producing for Pablo. This track carries Ray Gilbert's English words and the title Somewhere in the Hills.
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Listen for
Fitzgerald sings in English here. Other tracks on the album feature Clark Terry, Zoot Sims, Toots Thielemans and Joe Pass, so listen for which of them turn up in this one.
Try it on your instrument
Play the again, now as the second A plays them: , , A13, B♭13, A13, B♭13, , A13♯9.
In 1963 Jair Rodrigues sings it in Portuguese on a Brazilian LP, Stan Getz and Luiz Bonfá record it in New York, and Jobim plays it as a piano instrumental.
1980s
Ella Fitzgerald records it in September 1980 for a Jobim songbook album on Pablo, as Somewhere in the Hills with Ray Gilbert's English words.
2010s
Joyce Moreno records it in Rio de Janeiro in February 2014, with a piano, bass and drums trio behind her, on an album first made for the Japanese market.
2020s
Pianist Antonio Adolfo brings it back in 2021 on Jobim Forever, an album of Jobim songs played by a band with saxophone, trombone, guitar and extra percussion.
More great versions
2 more, from 1965 to 2014. Tap a cover to play it here.
“Favela (O Morro Não Tem Vez)”, Live at El Matador
Vince Guaraldi's trio and guitarist Bola Sete played it live at the El Matador club in San Francisco in spring 1965. Fantasy released the album in October 1966.
Joyce Moreno sings and plays guitar on this track from Raiz, recorded in Rio de Janeiro in February 2014 with a piano, bass and drums trio. The album was first made for the Japanese market.
The tune's layout, its keys and the chord chart, for anyone who wants to play along.
Show the form and chords
How the tune works
A minorusual key
40 barsA · B · C · A · B form
A minorkey centers
A8 bars
B8 bars
C8 bars
A8 bars
B8 bars
A m
The first rocks between and for six and ends on two bars of ; the second A swaps G13 for . The runs , G13, and bar by bar, then with , with , and Am7; the first B ends on and the last B on a plain Am7. The rocks between Dm7 and Am7 for six bars, then with leads to . These follow the iReal Pro chart, which also has an eight-bar intro on , B♭13 and that this form leaves out.