Bossa Nova: A Brief History - ABC

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Bossa Nova: the sound that seduced the world

ABC Online

History

Bossa Nova began on the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s, when a small group of mainly middle-class students, artists and musicians came together to create a new sound. Bossa Nova was a soft samba based on traditional Brazilian music and rhythms, American jazz, and a new style of Portuguese lyrics. It was a youthful celebration of romance, beach culture and sensual pleasure.

Bossa Nova's twin figureheads are Antônio Carlos Jobim (Tom Jobim), a gifted composer, also blessed with classical good looks, and João Gilberto, a guitarist and singer who came to Rio from the poorer Bahia region.

Surrounding these central figures is a wider Bossa Nova family. It includes 'Girl from Ipanema' lyricist Vinícius de Moraes, jazz pianist Sérgio Mendes, composer/guitarist Roberto Menescal, and the Bossa Nova's muse, Nara Leão, who often hosted musical gatherings in her flat.

While there was a concurrent scene in São Paulo, picturesque Rio de Janeiro is Bossa Nova's natural home. Quieter beach-inspired sounds were combined with jazz in Rio's thriving nightclubs; 'Bottles Bar' was the most famous of these small, sweaty venues.

According to legend, Bossa Nova was 'discovered' in one of these clubs by an American A&R man on holiday, when he saw Tom Jobim and João Gilberto playing. Other stories relate that it was US jazz-men jamming with locals who made the original connections.

Whatever happened in Rio, Americans latched onto Brazil's 'New Beat'. In 1962, there was a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall and the Bossa Nova craze had arrived. In 1964, American Stan Getz recorded 'The Girl from Ipanema' with João Gilberto and his wife Astrud on vocals, along with Tom Jobim, the song's co-composer, on piano.

The album Getz/Gilberto spent 96 weeks in the US charts and 'The Girl from Ipanema' would become the world's second most played song behind the Beatles' 'Yesterday'.

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