Bossa Nova

[TheMusicalMarine]

I currently own only Getz/Gilberto. For those of you familiar with the genre, would you be so good as to recommend a few of the essentials? I don't know how many bossa nova cds are currently out there, but if there are quite a few, I'd be looking at a representative sample of a dozen or so.

Thanks

[Noj]

Go ahead and pick up Getz' JAZZ SAMBA and JAZZ SAMBA ENCORE, I have those and enjoy them as much as Getz/Gilberto.

I'd also suggest Baden Powell, though I've only heard THE GUITAR ARTISTRY OF...and the only other song I've heard by him outside that album is better than anything on that one...

Edited because I realized albums were wanted...

[TheMusicalMarine]

Fellows, thanks for the suggestion.

[Pete C]

I'll bring up the Brazilian Music thread. There are lots of recommendations there for bossa & beyond.

[vibes]

Antonio Carlos Jobim recorded a number of albums which I believe are classics in the genre. I feel that "Wave" is probably his best, but also love "Tide" and "Stone Flower" and would enthusiastically recommend them to anyone who wants to hear more of his work.

[José Domingos Raffaelli]

Two essential Brazilian instrumental recordings that usually don't are mentioned by the recor collectors:

1. Sergio Mendes "Você Ainda Não Ouviu Nada!" - Forget Sergio's Brazil '65 and its sequels. This is dynamite, a wonderful sextet playing great arrangements and great solos.

1. Erlon Chaves "Sabadabadá" - The late great pianist, composer and arranger Erlon Chaves leading an excellent combo from São Paulo - The title tune once was the theme song of the jazz broadcast of Harry Frost, from Saint Louis, Mo.

[Chris D]

Listen to Jose, the Voice of Experience!

[Pete C]

Erlon Chaves is a completely new name to me. I see that Alvaro wrote his AMG bio.

[John P. Cooper]

I honesty don't know.

Is Bossa Nova a Jazz style or was/is it just a rhythmic pattern that was employed buy Jazz musicians at the time.

I liked it, but it became so prevelent and commercialized, that it seemed to flame out very quickly.

Also - did people dance to bossa nova music and what type of dance did they do if they did?

Any general discussion of Bossa Nova would be welcome.

[Mike Schwartz]

Mr. Cooper asked about this topic...also I wonder how TheMusicalMarine is doing, hoping that he is both safe and well.

[clinthopson]

What Pete says. . .

I am a huge Gal Costa fan.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by Pete C

I'll bring up the Brazilian Music thread. There are lots of recommendations there for bossa & beyond.

Here's a permanent "bring-up":

Brazilian Music

[hglord]

A magnificent album: Elis & Tom: Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina. It's on Verve 824 418-2. Everything on it is wonderful. Their version of "Aguas de Marco" ("Waters of March") is a classic. Their "Corcovado" is magic. All singing is in Portuguese. English translations are on the insert card.

Elis' death was a major tragedy.

[Sergio Zamora]

Originally Posted by hglord

A magnificent album: Elis & Tom: Antonio Carlos Jobim & Elis Regina. It's on Verve 824 418-2. Everything on it is wonderful. Their version of "Aguas de Marco" ("Waters of March") is a classic.

Definitely. Few songs have the intense joy that this version of 'Waters of March' has.

[John P. Cooper]

I posted my post in a new thread for a specific reason. Too bad someone moved it.

[VIBEr]

Originally Posted by John P. Cooper

Is Bossa Nova a Jazz style or was/is it just a rhythmic pattern that was employed buy Jazz musicians at the time.

I read a book about it around 10 years ago, and as I recall bossa nova was what the Rio artists were calling their interest in jazz as reflected in their own music. The breakthrough songs were "Chega de Saudade" and "Desafinado," written by Jobim and recorded by Joao Gilberto in 1959, and both have some pretty sophisticated chord changes for Brasilian pop music. Getz heard the music on trip to Rio and instigated the session that resulted in "Girl From Ipanema" in 1963. Bear in mind that the film Black Orpheus came out in 1959-60 with music by Jobim and Luis Bonfa, and this film played a role in bossa's exposure to the rest of the world.

So I think bossa nova became a jazz style after-the-fact, and spawned a bossa nova craze (of sorts) with American artists but four to five years after the style caught on in Brazil.

This is my recollection of the book, but I'll stand corrected if anyone has a differing perspective.

[bluenoter]

Originally Posted by John P. Cooper

Also - did people dance to bossa nova music and what type of dance did they do if they did?

When the bossa nova fad in the United States had reached its commercial dregs, this song came out:

Blame It On the Bossa Nova

Eydie Gorme
Written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil

- Peaked at # 7 in March, 1963

Note the woefully out-of-tune organ in the instrumental break of this song. Eydie Gorme later tried a unsuccessful sequel nine months later called "Can't Get over the Bossa Nova." Around the same time, Elvis had a related Top 10 hit, "Bossa Nova Baby" in October of the same year. . . .

I was at a dance when he caught my eye
Standin' all alone lookin' sad and shy
We began to dance, swaying' to and fro
And soon I knew I'd never let him go

Blame it on the bossa nova with its magic spell
Blame it on the bossa nova that he did so well
Oh, it all began with just one little dance
But then it ended up a big romance
Blame it on the bossa nova
The dance of love

(Now was it the moon?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Or the stars above?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Now was it the tune?)
Yeah, yeah, the bossa nova
(The dance of love)

Now I'm glad to say I'm his bride to be
And we're gonna raise a family
And when our kids ask how it came about
I'm gonna say to them without a doubt

Blame it on the bossa nova with its magic spell
Blame it on the bossa nova that he did so well
Oh, it all began with just one little dance
But then it ended up a big romance
Blame it on the bossa nova
The dance of love

(Now was it the moon?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Or the stars above?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Now was it the tune? )
Yeah, yeah, the bossa nova
(The dance of love)

(Now was it the moon?)
No, no, the bossa nova
(Or the stars above ?)
FADE
No, no, the bossa nova

http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/html...bossa_nova.txt

But apparently there was no bossa nova dance. (I always thought that "Blame It On the Bossa Nova" sounded like a cha cha. I'm guessing that the samba would work as a dance for only a few of the "real" bossa nova tunes and that the rest simply aren't dance tunes.) So a California dance teacher stepped up to fill the breach, by his account and the sometimes more grudging accounts of others. John, you probably know of--or perhaps even know--Joe Lanza from your swing dance connections. I don't want to spoil the story; this page from his website is hilarious! It keeps referring to Lanza as The Dancer.

http://www.lindybylanza.com/Bossa.htm

[John P. Cooper]

VIBEr - thanks for your input and recollection amd information.

BN - Yes...Joe Lanza.......poor old bastard. He lives very locally and has essentially made himself persona non grata with many people due to his claims and boasts and grating personality...and this is in person. Sad, too, b/c he does have first hand information of show business and such, but he has turned so many people off, so now few people care to even listen to him....and other dance historians take exception to several of his many claims. He is a lonely old man still wanting to be in the spotlight, but is largely ignored. OTOH, other vet dancers even older than Joe are revered. He blew it due mostly to ego.

At first people were thrilled to have discovered this gent right here in the middle of things, but he very quickly made himself into a lightining rod of controversery with his public proclamations of this and that. He even managed to motivate people who rarely post on the subject to post and to essentially tell that he didnt know what he was talking about, only spoke for himself and to please keep his mouth shut.

Oh, well...the trick is to not turn into a Joe Lanza when trying to share opinions and information.

[Pete C]

The general historical consensus is that Joao Gilberto invented bossa by woodshedding until he found a way to reduce the rhythm of a samba percussion section to guitar patterns while adopting his subdued vocal style to accompany this new quiet samba (he actually was a traditional crooner before this). Some of the Jobim tunes he recorded preceded bossa and I believe the style was samba cancao (a popular vocal samba style)--the play that Black Orpheus was based on was pre-bossa, and only later did songs like A Felicidade become bossa-ized. Of course it became a symbiotic relationship, and Jobim's work started being bossa at the core.

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by José Domingos Raffaelli

Two essential Brazilian instrumental recordings that usually don't are mentioned by the record collectors:

1. Sergio Mendes "Você Ainda Não Ouviu Nada!" - Forget Sergio's Brazil '65 and its sequels. This is dynamite, a wonderful sextet playing great arrangements and great solos.

Here's a tip with respect to the 1st recommendation of Mr. Rafaelli. You can buy Você Ainda Não Ouviu Nada! (retitled as The Beat of Brazil) plus The Swinger From Rio on a compilation CD for $14.97, less than the cost of the single title alone.

Along with the Jobim recommendations above, I'd also add Urubu, another fine collaborative effort with Claus Ogerman, and Passarim to the list. And, of course, if you're a Sinatra fan, you can't go wrong with Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim.

After enjoying bossa nova as a listener for three decades or so, I'm now experiencing this wonderful form as a musician, and having great fun in the process. It should come as no surprise that Jobim (and others) make this music seem far simpler than it is.