Antonio Carlos Jobim, music and lyrics · First recorded by Chico Buarque, Rio de Janeiro, 1974
Ligia
Lígia is a 1972 song by Antonio Carlos Jobim, who wrote both the music and the Portuguese words. He dedicated it to Lygia Marina de Moraes, and Chico Buarque made the first recording in 1974. Jazz players took it up too, among them Stan Getz, Stanley Turrentine and Joe Henderson.
Listen in this order
The path starts in Rio de Janeiro with Chico Buarque's 1974 record, then follows the song to New York with Jobim and with Stan Getz and João Gilberto. It goes on to a tenor saxophone with strings, a saxophone quartet, a voice-and-guitar duo, João Gilberto live in Tokyo and a modern octet.
Chico Buarque made the first recording, in Rio de Janeiro for his 1974 Philips album Sinal Fechado. His previous album had been cut heavily by censors, so this one is made of songs by friends, Jobim among them.
First recording
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Listen for
Chico Buarque's voice leads, and the whole track is over in under three minutes. The Portuguese words were written by Jobim himself.
Try it on your instrument
Play 1 to 4 of the chart slowly, one per bar: , , , . Hum the melody over them, or start with just the first two chords.
Jobim recorded it in New York in October 1975 for Urubu, a Warner Bros. album arranged and produced by Claus Ogerman. The album came out in November 1976.
Led by the composer
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Jobim sings it himself and plays piano, with Ron Carter on bass, João Palma on drums and Ray Armando on percussion. Claus Ogerman's arrangement runs through the track, which lasts a little over four minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play 5 to 8 of the chart: , then and with two beats each, then and . Play them slowly and listen for how the sound darkens and then opens again.
Stan Getz and João Gilberto recorded it in New York City on May 21, 1975, for The Best of Two Worlds, a Columbia album that Getz produced. Their previous collaboration had been about ten years earlier.
Tenor sax with percussion
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Stan Getz's tenor saxophone leads, with João Gilberto on guitar, a piano, and four percussionists in the band. The track runs just over five minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 12 of the chart, one per bar: , , , . Play them slowly and let Bmaj7 ring, since it is the first time the chart lands on that chord.
Stanley Turrentine recorded it in New York City in August and September 1976 for The Man with the Sad Face on Fantasy. David Van De Pitte arranged and conducted the strings.
Tenor sax with strings
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Stanley Turrentine's tenor saxophone leads, with a string section behind him, Ron Carter on bass and Dave Carey on vibraphone. The track lasts almost six minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play 13 to 16 of the chart: , , and (two beats each), then . Play them slowly, then try the first two bars alone.
Joe Henderson recorded it in 1994 for Double Rainbow, a Jobim tribute that Verve released in 1995. The album began as a planned collaboration with Jobim, and the plan changed after Jobim died.
Tenor sax quartet
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Joe Henderson plays tenor saxophone over a piano, bass and drums, and Eliane Elias is the pianist. The track runs a little under four and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Take the end of the chart: play in 16, then let ring through bars 17 and 18. Listen to how the tune stops away from .
Joyce and Toninho Horta recorded the album Sem Você in 1995, also issued as Tom Jobim: Sem Você. According to Discogs, the sessions took place in New York on May 17 and in Rio de Janeiro on June 18, 1995.
Voice and guitar duo
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Two musicians make the whole track: Joyce sings and Toninho Horta plays acoustic guitar. It lasts about three and a half minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the whole chart slowly with one per bar, and use the two-chord bars where the chart shows them. Sing or hum the melody over it, the way a voice and one guitar would.
João Gilberto's live album In Tokyo comes from his first concerts in Japan, in September 2003. This take was recorded at the Tokyo International Forum on September 12, 2003.
Solo voice and guitar
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Listen for
João Gilberto sings and plays guitar by himself in front of an audience, and the track runs more than five minutes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the chart through once, alone, at a slow and steady tempo, one per bar. Hum the melody as you go.
“Ligia (Live)”, Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim & Original Compositions Live: SFJAZZ Center 2018
The SFJAZZ Collective recorded it live at the SFJAZZ Center in 2018. It is on a two-disc set that pairs Jobim songs with the band's own pieces, released in 2019.
Live octet
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Listen for
Eight players share the stage: saxophones, trumpet, trombone, vibraphone, piano, bass and drums. The track lasts about six and a half minutes and was recorded in front of an audience.
Try it on your instrument
A full solo over the chart needs more practice. A smaller version: play only the root of each in 1 to 4 (C♯, F♯, D♯, D) as a slow bass line, then add the third above each.
Jobim writes it in 1972, and Chico Buarque records it in 1974 on Sinal Fechado, an album of songs by other writers. Jobim, Stan Getz with João Gilberto, and Stanley Turrentine follow in 1975 and 1976.
1980s
Jobim plays it alone at the piano and sings it at a 1981 concert in Belo Horizonte. The recording comes out in 2004.
1990s
Joe Henderson plays it in 1994 on a Jobim tribute that began as a planned project with Jobim. Joyce and Toninho Horta record it as a voice-and-guitar duo in 1995, and Gal Costa sings it live in 1999.
2000s
João Gilberto sings it live in Tokyo in 2003, alone with his guitar, on the album In Tokyo. Léa Freire and Bocato put it on a 2004 album of Brazilian songs.
2010s
The SFJAZZ Collective, an eight-player jazz group, plays it live at the SFJAZZ Center in 2018 as part of a Jobim program.
More great versions
1 more, from 1999 to 1999. Tap a cover to play it here.
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
B majorusual key
18 barsA form
B · B m · G♯ · E · D♯ · C♯ m · Ckeys it moves between
A18 bars
B
B m
G♯
E
B
D♯
C♯ m
C
The iReal Pro chart is one section with no repeat. Bars 1 to 4 play , , and , in . Bar 5 is and bar 6 holds and , two in one bar. and fill bars 7 and 8 and point toward G♯, but bar 9 goes to instead. in bar 10 leads into in bar 11, the first full arrival on B major, and follows in bar 12. and take bars 13 and 14, and share bar 15, and C♯m7 fills bar 16. holds bars 17 and 18, which ends the chart away from B major.