Bossa nova
(pronunciation (help·info)) is a style of Brazilian music popularized by Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto. Bossa nova (which is Portuguese for "new trend") acquired a large following, initially by young musicians and college students. [1] Although the bossa nova movement only lasted six years (1958–63), it contributed a number of songs to the standard jazz repertoire.
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BOSSA NOVA TICKETS
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Origins and history
The musical style evolved from
samba but is more complex harmonically and less percussive. Additionally, Bossa Nova emerged primarily from the upscale beachside neighborhoods of Rio De Janeiro vs. Samba's origins in
favelas of Rio. Certain similar elements were already evident, even influencing Western classical music like Gershwin's
Cuban Overture which has the characteristic 'Latin' clave rhythm. The influence on bossa nova of
jazz styles such as
cool jazz is often debated by historians and fans, but a similar "cool sensibility" is apparent. Bossa nova was developed in
Brazil in 1958 by João Gilberto, with
Elizete Cardoso's recording of
Chega de Saudade
on the
Canção do Amor Demais
LP, composed by Vinícius de Moraes (lyrics) and Antonio Carlos Jobim (music). The song was soon after released by Gilberto.
The initial releases by Gilberto and the 1959 film
Black Orpheus
brought significant popularity in Brazil and elsewhere in
Latin America, which spread to North America via visiting American jazz musicians. The resulting recordings by
Charlie Byrd and
Stan Getz cemented its popularity and led to a worldwide boom with 1963's
Getz/Gilberto
, numerous recordings by famous jazz performers such as
Ella Fitzgerald (
Ella Abraça Jobim
) and
Frank Sinatra (
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antônio Carlos Jobim
), and the entrenchment of the bossa nova style as a lasting influence in world music for several decades and even up to the present.
The first bossa nova single was perhaps the most successful of all time: The Getz/Gilberto recording "
The Girl From Ipanema" edited to include only the singing of
Astrud Gilberto (Gilberto's then wife). The resulting fad was not unlike the disco craze of the 1970s. The genre would withstand substantial "watering down" by popular artists throughout the next four decades.
An early influence on bossa nova was the song "
Dans mon île" by French singer
Henri Salvador, featured in a 1957 Italian movie distributed in Brazil (
Europa di notte
by
Alessandro Blasetti) and covered later by Brazilian artists
Eumir Deodato (
Los Danseros en Bolero
- 1964) and
Caetano Veloso (
Outras Palavras
- 1981). In 2005, Henri Salvador was awarded the Brazilian Order of Cultural Merit, which he received from singer and Minister of Culture,
Gilberto Gil, in the presence of President
Lula for his influence on Brazilian culture.
Instruments
Bossa nova is most commonly performed on the nylon-string
classical guitar, played with the fingers rather than with a pick. Its purest form could be considered unaccompanied guitar with vocals, as exemplified by
João Gilberto. Even in larger jazz-like arrangements for groups, there is almost always a guitar that plays the underlying rhythm. Gilberto basically took one of the several rhythmic layers from a
samba ensemble (specifically, the
tamborim) and applied it to the picking hand.
Though not as prominent as the guitar, the
piano is another important instrument of bossa nova;
Jobim wrote for the piano and performed on it for most of his own recordings. The piano has also served as a stylistic bridge between bossa nova and jazz, enabling a great deal of cross-pollination between the two.
Drums and other
percussion are generally not considered essential bossa nova instruments. Nonetheless, there is a distinctive bossa nova drumming style like that of
Helcio Milito and
Milton Banana, characterized by continuous eighths on the
high-hat (mimicking the samba
Pandeiro) and tapping of the rim or "rim clicks" in a
clave pattern. The bass drum usually mimics the string bass by playing on "1-&3-&1" as the string bass usually does.
Lush orchestral accompaniment is often associated with bossa nova's North American image as "
elevator" or "
lounge" music. It is present in many of Jobim's own recordings, and in those of
Astrud Gilberto.
Dusty Springfield would both feature and epitomize this element on her
Philips recording of "
The Look of Love" (a song written by Bacharach and David, and one of the most respected American pop interpretations of the bossa nova). (This version is not the
Phil Ramone version Springfield first recorded.) The unique aural texture of bossa strings, when used, is an important secondary characteristic of the genre. Bossa nova is at heart a folk genre, and not all bossa nova records have
strings, but the authentic ones that do have them feature them in a most distinctive manner.
Structure
Bossa nova is at its core a
rhythm based on
samba. Samba combines the rhythmic patterns and feel originating in former African slave communities. Samba's emphasis on the second
beat carries through to bossa nova (to the degree that it is often notated in 2/4 time). When played on the guitar, in a simple one-bar pattern the thumb plays the bass notes on 1 and 2, while the fingers pluck the chords in unison on the two eighth notes of beat one, followed by the second sixteenth note of beat two. Two-measure patterns usually contain a syncopation into the second measure. Overall, the rhythm has a
swaying
feel rather than the
swinging
feel of jazz. As bossa nova composer
Carlos Lyra describes it in his song "Influência do Jazz", the samba rhythm moves "side to side" while jazz moves "front to back".
In terms of
harmonic structure, bossa nova has a great deal in common with
jazz, in its sophisticated use of
seventh and
extended chords. The first bossa nova song, "
Chega de Saudade," borrowed some structural elements from
choro; however, later compositions rarely followed this form. Jobim often used challenging, almost dissonant melody lines, the best-known being in the tunes "
Desafinado" ("Off-Key"). Often the melody goes to the altered note in the chord. For example, if the chord is DM7#11, the note sung in the melody line there would be G#, or the sharp 11.
Aside from the guitar style, João Gilberto's other innovation was the projection of the singing voice. Prior to Bossa Nova, Brazilian singers used brassy, almost operatic styles; the shy Gilberto dramatically reduced that to a subtle near-whisper.
In the early bossa nova recordings, in terms of lyrical themes and length of songs (typically two to four minutes), bossa nova was very much a popular-music style. However, its song structure often differs from European and North American popular music's standard format of two verses followed by a bridge and a closing verse; bossa nova songs frequently have no more than two lyrical verses, and many lack a bridge. Some of João Gilberto's earliest recordings were less than two minutes long, and some had a single lyrical verse that was simply repeated.
Origin of the term "bossa nova"
In Brazil, to do something with "bossa" is to do it with particular charm and natural flair, as in an innate ability. In 1932,
Noel Rosa used the word in a samba...which went
O samba, a prontidão e outras bossas / São nossas coisas, são coisas nossas
(The samba, the readiness and other
bossas
/ Are our things, are our things.) As yet, the exact origin of the term "bossa nova" remains uncertain. What is certain is that the term "bossa" was used to refer to any new "trend" or "fashionable wave" within the artistic beach-culture of late 1950s Rio de Janeiro. The term finally became known and widely used to refer to a new music style, a fusion of samba and jazz, when the now famous creators of "bossa nova" referred to their new style of work as "a bossa nova," as in "the new thing."
[2]
Brazilian author
Ruy Castro, in his book
Bossa Nova
, says that "bossa" was already in use in the fifties by musicians as a word to characterize someone's knack for playing or singing idiosyncratically. He cites a claim that the term "bossa nova" might have first been used in publicity for a concert given by the
Grupo Universitário Hebraico do Brasil
(University Hebrew Group of Brazil) in 1958 for a group consisting of Sylvinha Telles, Carlinhos Lyra, Nara Leão, Luizinho Eça, Roberto Menescal, et al.
They were likely using the term "bossa nova" then as a generic reference to what they were doing in music at the time, which had no particular name yet. However, the term took hold as the definition of their own specific artistic creation, which became known as "bossa nova," and is often simply known as "bossa" today.
Later developments
From the mid-nineties, various other European artists reached out to bossa nova for inspiration mixing electronic music into it and bringing new creations sometimes referred to as BossaElectrica, TecnoBossa, etc. which still permeates the air of lounge bars of Europe and Asia today.
From this newer crop of artists came new singers like
Bebel Gilberto, daughter of bossa nova co-creator João Gilberto and singer Miúcha, and new European bands like
Nouvelle Vague and
Koop to name a few, who used both conventional bossa nova style and modern views to further interpret this fabulously soothing style of music that originated in Rio de Janeiro-Brazil back in the 1950s.
Notable bossa nova artists
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- Milton Banana
- Luiz Bonfá
- Sylvia Telles
- Lisa Ono
- Charlie Byrd
- Quarteto em Cy
- Gal Costa
- Stan Getz
- Astrud Gilberto
- Bebel Gilberto
- João Gilberto
- Antonio Carlos Jobim
- Nara Leão
- Carlos Lyra
- Sérgio Mendes
- Newton Mendonça
- Roberto Menescal
- Maysa Matarazzo
- Gilberto Gil (early years)
- Paula Morelenbaum
- Bob Tostes
- Hermeto Pascoal
- Vinicius de Moraes
- Elis Regina
- Elza Soares
- Toquinho
- Marcos Valle
- Rosa Passos
- Eliane Elias
- Zoot Sims
- Henri Salvador
- Chico Buarque
References
- ''A estética da bossa nova''
- A história da bossa nova