Blame It On the Bossa Nova

"The great specter in Antonio Carlos Jobim's life, after the payment of his rent, was his fear of contracting tuberculosis. According to his family, all musicians ended up like that, especially late evening pianists. There could have been many causes for this, but the main ones must have been the continual opening and closing of nightclub doors, the starch from dress shirts in contact with one's chest, the contents of the glasses on top of the piano, the packs of cigarettes smoked while playing 'Tea for Two,' the chatter of people who frequented those places, the completely miserable pay that one received for one's work, and the fact that the schedule completely threw off one's body clock, preventing one from going to the beach and from arranging to have lunch and dinner with people who worked from nine to six."

—Ruy Castro, Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music That Seduced the World (A Capella, 2000)