Antônio Carlos Jobim, music · Chico Buarque, lyrics · First recorded as the instrumental Zingaro, 1967
Zingaro
Jobim's instrumental Zingaro became Retrato em Branco e Preto when Chico Buarque added words in 1968. The tune stays in a sad minor , with one brighter patch before the first half ends. Singers from Elis Regina to Emilie-Claire Barlow and jazz players from Stan Getz to Chick Corea have recorded it.
Listen in this order
The path starts with Jobim's own instrumental, then follows the song to Chico Buarque's words, Elis Regina's duet with Jobim, two meetings of Stan Getz and João Gilberto, a long guitar version, a tenor saxophone tribute and a live piano duo.
Jobim wrote Zingaro as an instrumental and recorded it for his 1967 album A Certain Mr. Jobim, which Claus Ogerman arranged and conducted. Chico Buarque added words the next year.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
There is no singer. This is the original instrumental, 2:16 long, the shortest version on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first eight of the chart slowly on piano or guitar: , Gm7, , D7♭9/F♯, , Fm6 to , , E♭maj7. Then play them again while you hum the tune.
“Retrato em Branco e Preto”, Chico Buarque de Hollanda
Chico Buarque made the first recording with words, on his third album, issued by RGE in 1968. According to Helena Jobim's biography, cited by Wikipedia, he taped the melody and wrote the words at home within a few days.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Chico Buarque sings the song with words for the first time on record. At 3:20 it runs about a minute longer than Jobim's instrumental.
Try it on your instrument
Play the and of the chart again, two bars each, and hum the tune along with Buarque's voice.
Elis Regina had long wanted to make an album of Jobim's songs with Jobim. They recorded Elis & Tom in 16 days in 1974 at MGM Studios in Los Angeles, and on this track Jobim plays piano with a string section behind her.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Elis Regina's voice sits over Jobim's piano, with a string section behind them. At 3:03 it is shorter than the Getz and Gilberto takes.
Try it on your instrument
Play the last eight of the from the chart: , , , , Cm7, , , E♭m7. This is where the second half ends differently from the first.
“Retrato Em Branco E Preto”, The Best of Two Worlds
Recorded in New York on May 21, 1975 and issued in 1976 on Columbia's The Best of Two Worlds, with João Gilberto featured. Gilberto sings and plays guitar, and Stan Getz plays tenor saxophone.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Stan Getz's tenor saxophone and João Gilberto's voice and guitar share the tune. At 4:04 it runs almost twice as long as Jobim's instrumental.
Try it on your instrument
Play 9 to 16 of the chart: , , for two bars, for two bars, , . This is the brighter stretch of the first half.
Recorded live at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco during the week of May 11 to 16, 1976, and not released until 2016, by Resonance Records. Joanne Brackeen, Clint Houston and Billy Hart play piano, bass and drums.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
This is a live club recording with piano, bass and drums behind Getz's saxophone and Gilberto's voice and guitar. At 4:47 it runs a little longer than their 1975 studio take.
Try it on your instrument
Play through the chart once with a friend: one of you plays the while the other hums the tune, then swap parts.
Gábor Szabó recorded it as Zingaro in Los Angeles in 1979, during sessions for Femme Fatale, his final album. It came out in 1981 on Pepita, a Hungarian label.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Szabó's guitar leads for seven minutes, the longest version on the path so far.
Try it on your instrument
If you improvise, loop the first four of the chart (, Gm7, , D7♭9/F♯) and play notes from over them. If you do not, play those four bars and hum along.
“Portrait in Black and White (A.K.A. Zingaro)”, Double Rainbow: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim
Henderson planned Double Rainbow as a collaboration with Jobim, and the plan changed after Jobim's death. This track from the 1995 Verve album pairs his tenor saxophone with Herbie Hancock on piano and Christian McBride on bass.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Joe Henderson's tenor saxophone leads, with Herbie Hancock's piano and Christian McBride's bass underneath. Per Wikipedia's per-track credits, no drummer is listed on this track, so listen to how the bass keeps the time.
Try it on your instrument
Play the chart as a duo with no drums: one person plays the bass notes from the chart, the other plays the , slowly.
Two pianists, Chick Corea and Stefano Bollani, play it as the second piece on their live album Orvieto, recorded on December 30, 2010 at Umbria Jazz Winter and released by ECM in 2011.
Couldn't play this one here. Try the links below.
Listen for
Two pianos play it live, with no singer, bass or drums, so the tune and the all come from the keyboards. At 6:17 it is the second-longest version on the path.
Try it on your instrument
Play the first 16 of the chart with in your left hand and the tune in your right, then play them again with a friend taking the chords.
Jobim records the instrumental Zingaro on a 1967 Warner Bros. album, with Claus Ogerman arranging. Chico Buarque adds words in 1968 and records it for his third album on RGE.
1970s
Nara Leão sings it in 1971, and Elis Regina records it with Jobim in Los Angeles in 1974. Stan Getz and João Gilberto play it in New York in 1975 and live in San Francisco in 1976. Gábor Szabó records a long guitar version in 1979.
1980s
Chet Baker plays it in 1987 for the soundtrack of the film Let's Get Lost, released as an album in 1989.
1990s
Joe Henderson plays it with Herbie Hancock and Christian McBride on his Jobim tribute Double Rainbow, recorded in 1994. Enrico Rava, Paolo Fresu and two others release it on Shades of Chet in 1999.
2000s
Emilie-Claire Barlow sings it on Like a Lover in 2005, and Enrico Rava and Stefano Bollani play it on The Third Man in 2007.
2010s
Chick Corea and Stefano Bollani play it as a two-piano duet at Umbria Jazz Winter in Orvieto in December 2010, issued by ECM in 2011.
More great versions
3 more, from 1971 to 2005. Tap a cover to play it here.
João Gilberto recorded it as Zingaro for Amoroso, a 1977 Warner Bros. album that sets his voice and guitar with strings arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman.
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
G minorusual key
32 barsA · B form
G minor · E♭ major · B♭ major · D majorkeys it moves between
A16 bars
B16 bars
G m
E♭
B♭
D
G m
E♭
G m
The runs 32 in two 16-bar sections, A and B. A opens with for two bars and for two bars, then , Fm6 moving to , and for two bars. Next come , , two bars of , two bars of , and , which leads back to the top. B repeats the first eight bars of A, then moves through Cm7, , and E♭maj7, and closes with Cm7, , Gm7 and E♭m7.