I fell in love with the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim when I was a teenager. Like many people, I already knew the famous melody of "The Girl from Ipanema", but I wasn't familiar with the rest of his work. Then I landed a job as a pianist at the Stash Café, a Polish restaurant in Old Montreal, and to add to my repertoire, my mother gave me a book of scores of Jobim's complete repertoire. So it was on weekend evenings, between plates of pierogis on St-Paul Street, sitting at the restaurant's old piano, that I had the pleasure of discovering the richness and beauty of the songs of the greatest Brazilian composer the 20th century has given us.
Completely fascinated by the perfection of the melodies and ingenious chords of the founding father of bossa nova, I've bought every possible version of his works, performed by Jobim as well as some of the world's greats, including Frank Sinatra, Joao Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, Elis Regina, Eliane Elias, Stan Getz and dozens of others.