Wheres Jobim Street?
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 8 — Ask any Brazilian who ponders such things and he will most likely say Antonio Carlos Jobim’s music put Brazil on the map. But a year after his death, the city that so inspired the creator of bossa nova has yet to return the favor. Instead, the efforts to find a place to bear Mr. Jobim’s name have turned into a peculiarly Rio saga, as indelibly printed with the charms and foibles of his native city as his music was with its rhythms. The pop composer, as Rio’s Mayor said recently, lifted Brazil’s international image from the loopy exoticism of Carmen Miranda to the urbane and sensuous rhythms derived from the samba. The Mayor, Cesar Maia, said the urge to honor Mr. Jobim came instantly upon his unexpected death a year ago at the age of 67, after treatment for blocked arteries in a New York City hospital. On Dec. 10, 1994, the day the musician’s body arrived on a plane from New York, Mr. Maia gave Mr. Jobim’s name to the Avenida Vieira Souto, a luxurious stretch a
