The Art of Brazilian Bossa Nova Music

The musical fashion evolved from samba but is far more complicated harmonically and much less percussive. Additionally, Bossa Nova emerged largely from the upscale beachside neighborhoods of Rio De Janeiro vs. Samba's origins in favelas of Rio. Particular comparable components had been previously evident, even influencing Western classical music like Gershwin's Cuban Overture which has the attribute 'Latin' clave rhythm. The impact on bossa nova of jazz types for instance cool jazz is generally debated by historians and fans, but a similar "cool sensibility" is apparent. Bossa nova was developed in Brazil in 1956 by João Gilberto. The initial bossa nova song was titled "Bim-Bom". Bossa nova was made common by Dorival Caymmi 's Saudade da Bahia and Elizete Cardoso's recording of Chega de Saudade within the Canção do Amor Demais LP, composed by Vinícius de Moraes (lyrics) and Antonio Carlos Jobim (music). The song was quickly after introduced by Gilberto.

The initial releases by Gilberto plus the 1959 film Black Orpheus brought considerable recognition in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America, which spread to North America by means of visiting American jazz musicians. The resulting recordings by Charlie Byrd and Stan Getz cemented its reputation and led to some globally boom with 1963's Getz/Gilberto, numerous recordings by well-known 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 model as a lasting impact in world music for several decades and even up to the present.

The very first bossa nova single to achieve international acceptance was perhaps the most successful of all time, the Gilberto recording "The Girl From Ipanema" edited to include only the singing of Astrud Gilberto . The resulting fad was not unlike the disco craze of the 1970s. The genre would withstand significant "watering down" by popular artists throughout the next four decades.

An early effect 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 and Caetano Veloso. 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. Another impact on bossa nova was the record Julie Is Her Name where Julie London is accompanied by guitar player Barney Kessel. In this record Julie's warm vocals and the excellent but unobtrusive accompaniment of guitar and bass inspired the way musicians played Brazilian music.

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 within the second beat carries through to bossa nova. However, unlike samba, bossa nova doesn't have dance steps to accompany it. When played on the guitar, in a simple one-bar pattern the thumb plays the bass notes on 1 and 3, while the fingers pluck the chords in unison about the two eighth notes of beat one, followed by the second sixteenth note of beat two. Two-measure patterns generally contain 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". Bossa nova was also influenced by the blues, but because the most well-known bossa novas lack the 12-bar structure characteristic of classic blues,at the same time as the statement, repetition and rhyming resolution of lyrics typical of the genre, bossa nova’s affinity with blues typically passes unnoticed.

In terms of harmonic structure, bossa nova has a great deal in frequent with jazz, in its sophisticated use of seventh and extended chords. The 1st bossa nova song, "Chega de Saudade," borrowed some structural factors 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" . Generally the melody goes to the altered note in the chord. For instance, if the chord is DM7#11, the note sung in the melody line there would be G#, or the sharp 11.

Aside on the guitar fashion, João Gilberto's other innovation was the projection of the singing voice. Prior to Bossa Nova, Brazilian singers used brassy, almost operatic models. Now, the characteristic nasal vocal production of bossa nova is a peculiar trait of the cabaclo folk tradition of north-eastern Brazil. Gilberto managed to dramatically reduce that with a subtle near-whisper.

In the early bossa nova recordings, in terms of lyrical themes and length of songs, bossa nova was very much a popular-music type. However, its song structure usually differs from European and North American common music's standard format of two verses followed by a bridge and a closing verse; bossa nova songs frequently have no additional than two lyrical verses, and many lack a bridge. Some of João Gilberto's earliest recordings ended up a reduced amount of than two minutes long, and some had a single lyrical verse that was simply repeated. The lyrical themes found in bossa nova are women, love, longing, along with the best of youth. There are two types of Bossa Nova, the Bossa Nova beginning the late 1950s and the Bossa Nova following coup in 1964. The musical lyrics of the late 1950 depicted the easy life of the middle to upper-class Brazilians, though majority of the population was the working class. However, after 1964, Bossa Nova's lyrics became a lot more politically-charged. It spoke negatively about the newly formed government and emphasized the peoples' struggles.

Bossa nova is most commonly performed for the nylon-string classical guitar, played while using 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 tamborim and applied it to the picking hand.

Though not as prominent because 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 type like that of Helcio Milito and Milton Banana, characterized by continuous eighths within the high-hat(mimicking the samba Pandeiro) and tapping of the rim or "rim clicks" in a clave pattern. The bass drum typically plays on "1-&3-&1".

Lush orchestral accompaniment is typically 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". 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.