bossa nova

The tradition & historical record

Bossa nova (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbɔsɐ ˈnɔvɐ] ) is a relaxed style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a calm syncopated rhythm with chords and fingerstyle mimicking the beat of a samba groove, as if it were a simplification and stylization on the guitar of the rhythm produced by a samba school band. Another defining characteristic of the style is the use of unconventional chords in some cases with complex progressions and "ambiguous" harmonies. A common misconception is that these complex chords and harmonies were derived from jazz, but samba guitar players have been using similar arrangement structures since the early 1920s, indicating a case of parallel evolution of styles rather than a simple transference from jazz to bossa nova. Nevertheless, bossa nova was influenced by jazz, both in the harmonies used and also by the instrumentation of songs, and today many bossa nova songs are considered jazz standards. The popularity of bossa nova has helped to renew samba and contributed to the modernization of Brazilian music in general. One of the major innovations of bossa nova was the way to synthesize the rhythm of samba on the classical guitar. According to musicologist Gilberto Mendes, the bossa nova was one of the "three rhythmic phases of samba", in which the "bossa beat" had been extracted by João Gilberto from the traditional samba. ¹

In Brazil, the word bossa is old-fashioned slang for something done with particular charm, natural flair or innate ability. As early as 1932, Noel Rosa used the word in a samba: ¹

O samba, a prontidão e outras bossas são nossas coisas, são coisas nossas. (Samba, readiness and other bossas are our things, are things from us.) ¹

The phrase bossa nova, translated literally, means "new trend" or "new wave" in Portuguese. The exact origin of the term bossa nova remained unclear for many decades, according to some authors. Within the artistic beach culture of the late 1950s in Rio de Janeiro, the term bossa was used to refer to any new "trend" or "fashionable wave". In his book Bossa Nova, Brazilian author Ruy Castro asserts that bossa was already in use in the 1950s by musicians as a word to characterize someone's knack for playing or singing idiosyncratically. Castro claims that the term bossa nova might have first been used in public for a concert given in 1957 by the Grupo Universitário Hebraico do Brasil ('Hebrew University Group of Brazil'). The authorship of the term bossa nova is attributed to the young journalist Moyses Fuks, who was promoting the event. That group consisted of Sylvia Telles, Carlos Lyra, Nara Leão, Luiz Eça, Roberto Menescal, and others. Mr Fuks's description, fully supported by most of the bossa nova members, simply read Hoje. Sylvia Telles e um grupo bossa nova ("Today. Sylvia Telles and a 'Bossa Nova' group"), since Sylvia Telles was the most famous musician in the group at that time. In 1959, Nara Leão also participated in more than one embryonic display of bossa nova. These include the 1st Festival de Samba Session, conducted by the student union of Pontifícia Universidade Católica. ¹

The nightclubs of Beco das Garrafas (Alley of the Bottles), a small dead-end alley in Copacabana, is considered a historical cradle of bossa nova. In 1959, the soundtrack to the film Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) was released, which included the future Manhã de Carnaval, "The Morning of the Carnival". The style emerged at the time when samba-canção was the dominant rhythm in the Brazilian music scene. Its first appearance was on the album Canção do Amor Demais, in which the singer Elizeth Cardoso recorded two compositions by the duo Antônio Carlos "Tom" Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, "Outra Vez" and "Chega de Saudade", which were accompanied by João Gilberto's guitar. It was the first time that the Bahian musician presented the beat of his guitar that would become characteristic of the style. By accompanying Cardoso's voice, Gilberto innovated in the way of pacing the rhythm, accentuating the weak times, to carry out a synthesis of the beat of samba to guitar. In 1959, João Gilberto's bossa album was released, containing the tracks "Chega de Saudade", "Bim Bom" and "Desafinado" which entered the jazz repertory. Considered the landmark of the birth of bossa nova, it also featured Gilberto's innovative way of singing samba, which was inspired by Dorival Caymmi. With the LP Chega de Saudade, released in 1959, Gilberto consolidated the bossa nova as a new style of playing samba. His innovative way of playing and singing samba, combined with the harmonies of Tom Jobim and the lyrics of Vinicius de Moraes, found immediate resonance among musicians who were looking for new approaches to samba in Rio de Janeiro, many of whom were influenced by American jazz. On 21 November 1962, the Consulate-General of Brazil presented Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall. ¹

Outside of Brazil, Japan is arguably the country with the highest popularity of bossa nova. Bossa nova was introduced to Japan in the early 1960s, similar to the United States, and gained many fans along with the rise of jazz. Later, the release of Sadao Watanabe's 1967 album "Jazz & Bossa" after his return from the United States ignited a bossa nova boom in Japan. The success of Brazilian artists in Japan, such as Sonia Rosa, Vilma de Oliveira and Lisa Ono also boosted its popularity. Separately, with the café boom that began around 1990, bossa nova was often featured alongside jazz as music played in cafés. As a result, older bossa nova recordings are frequently reissued on CD in Japan, and Brazil also releases CDs for export with the Japanese and European markets in mind, making it easier to obtain bossa nova recordings in Japan than in Brazil itself. Brazilian music critic Mamoru Oshima has described the rise and fall of bossa nova by saying, "Bossa nova was born in Rio, grew up in São Paulo, died in Bahia, and was reborn in Japan." Carlos Lyra, an early Brazilian bossa nova artist, said of the popularity of bossa nova in Japan, "I think the reason why bossa nova is most loved in Japan is because of the people's educational background. In Brazil there is a huge gap between rich and poor, but that is not the case in Japan, there is a large middle class, and generally people are highly educated and cultured. Bossa nova was originally music made for such middle-class listeners, so I think it is a perfect fit for the Japanese taste." ¹

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 created, pioneered, and exemplified by João Gilberto. Even in larger, jazz-influenced ensemble arrangements, a guitar is typically present to provide the foundational rhythm. ¹

As in samba, the surdo plays an ostinato figure on the downbeat of beat one, the "ah" of beat one, the downbeat of beat two and the "… ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bossa nova”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

bossa nova is Fad dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²