What's With Desafinado?

   This song, Desafinado,  was a huge hit in 1962 for composer Antonio Carlos Jobim with the popularity of the Stan Getz and Charlie Bird versions.  With reference to the English lyrics, the tune is sometimes known as "Slightly Out of Tune".    The song never grows old and jazzers everywhere still play it - it's got that nice "#11" sound in the melody that sounds "slightly out of tune".   ( For you non-musicians, that's a note that is dissonant sounding against the underlying chord, and not normally heard as part of a melody, at least in 1962. )  Unfortunately there are different and conflicting published versions of this song out there,  and there is confusion over the number of bars in the B section of the tune.    This is a distinctive section of the tune where a surprising  20 bar interlude  passes through a couple different keys then cleverly makes its way easily back to the key of F.  Point of question is " How long does it stay in the key of A?" 

 (I hope to clear up the confusion,  and to win a $5 bet in the process.... JD you know who you are ) 

   As you can hear below , the answer is:    12 bars. Some published leadsheets have omitted 4 bars of this - I suspect it's just a typo.    Here is a version of Jobim himself playing guitar and singing where you can hear the 12 bar key change , 4 more in the key of C, then back to F.  All of the recorded versions that I have heard do this, including Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto and Dizzy Gillespie.  Even more interesting is the clever and beautiful chord progression in the original recording,  that has been radically altered and simplified in contemporary fake books ( they do that a lot ).    Below the video is a lead-sheet transcription from the actual Jobim recording sampled here.  Notice the minor chords with the third-of-the-chord in the bass - a great sound you will not often see notated in fake books - I'm not sure why- it's not like it's a difficult concept and it gives the progression some life.  Also notice that each time the 4-bar progression happens in the key of A, it is a little different, AS IS the melody!    While I always like the idea of respecting the original composition,  I'm certainly not opposed to altering chords and melodies as long as the final product is not LESS interesting than the original.

A Fiver in My Future