The rivers of March

In 2007, I was listening to Spanish radio RNE3 while driving through Spain last week. I was on my way home from Gibraltar, through Andalusia and Valencia, across the Sierra Nevada, along the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca. Mountains on my left, the sea on my right, the sun in my eyes. Then this tune came on.

I didn’t think much of it at first. It sounded like just another bit of smooth jazz elevator music. But then it wasn’t. The words drifted like waves in the ocean, constantly coming together and falling apart, sung in a voice not quite happy and not quite sad. It was as if the words sung themselves. And suddenly I could see. I could see the musicians, waiting, counting, nodding to the rhythm within, smiling, smoking, then taking their instruments and letting the music flow, as they had done so many times, and the tune opened up, like a crack in the sky. The music flowed out of the radio like thick creamy milk out of a cow.

I tried to catch the name of the performer or the song, but couldn’t understand any of the Spanish babble. So I wrote down as much of the lyrics as I could without driving the car off a cliff. That was just four words: “Stone”, “Stick”, “Riverbank” and “March”.

What are the odds? I didn’t expect to ever find the song. But it turns out to be a popular Brazilian tune called “The Waters of March”, written by Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim, and I found a few versions on YouTube.

The one I had heard is probably this version, in English, sung by Luciano Souza (the video seems to be a homemade holiday video):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=x_PesTqUxhs

Then I also found a version in the original Portuguese, by Elis Regina – you can see her above. Just look at her face!!