Studio Letters - On Joy & Jobim

January 25, 2026

The voice inside me wonders if it’s safe to speak.


“NO,” another voice answers. Maybe the ancestors. Maybe a saboteur.


Good and Pretti. Remember their names. They were loved. 


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We’re in a time of consequences unknown. You feel it. Don’t you?


Life marches on wearing different boots. Some sharp-heeled and heavy, some built to menace.

I ask you, as a musician, to remember the counterpoint: JOY.

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Joy is a tether to the light within, the most YOU of yous.
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It is not a solution. It is a grounding necessity.

To feel sunlight on your face

to experience laughter between friends

to give grace to a stranger

is to let Love resonate
and root
.

You matter. Be well.

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​A song. A birthday.


Today is the birthday of one of my heroes: Antonio Carlos Jobim (aka Tom Jobim)


When I was a teenager sitting in a relative’s kitchen in Buenos Aires, a concert came on TV. It was Caetano Veloso - one of the great Brazilian singer-songwriters - performing live. It was a touchstone moment for me. Time. Stood. Still. Some unknowable thing sparked in me and my life changed.

I started listening to Brazilian music. I bought every album I could find, and memorized it. Caetano led to Tom; Tom led to Milton Nascimento, to Baden Powell, to Vinicius de Moraes, to Marisa Monte, and so many others.


Jobim was a pianist, an arranger, a composer, a songwriter, a lyricist. He was one of the architects of bossa nova —which you may be surprised to learn— was not born in an elevator, but in the living rooms of middle class kids in Rio, hungry for something cooler, looser, breezier than the mawkish music that preceded them. 

Through it Tom became a legend.


I like to hear the words of those who see the world with love. I believe they see with a slow and steady truth. One that outlasts even the halls of power. 


So, here’s my tribute - recorded years ago. Imperfect. Fun. Full of love and gratitude.
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Thank you forever Tom, wherever you are. 

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