Bossa nova is a fairly new style of Brazilian music that combines the harmonics of jazz and local rhythms (especially samba). The very name “bossa nova” is associated with the Brazilian slang word “bossa” (specialty, striking feature), which was fashionable in the late 1950s. Thus, the name of this musical genre translates as “new thing” or, literally, “new style”.
Originally, bossa nova was performed at parties and house concerts in Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema neighborhood (a place where wealthy people lived). However, soon, it ceased to be only “music for the chosen few” and sounded in clubs, art cafes and just on the streets of Brazilian cities.
Although in the late 50’s there appeared a whole pleiad of talented composers and performers of bossa nova (among whom Joao Gilberto, Luis Bonfa and Baden Powell stood out), but the founder of the musical style is rightly considered to be Antonio Carlos Jobim (pseudonym Tom Jobim).
The point of reference of bossa nova can be the first recording of the song “Stop being sad” (“Chega de Saudade”), written by Tom Jobim and performed by his friend Joao Gilberto in 1958 in Rio de Janeiro. The first successful example of bossa nova was the album “Song of too strong love” (“Cancao do amor demais”), recorded by Elisette Cardoso and João Gilberto in 1958. And the real hit, thanks to which bossa nova crossed national boundaries, was the world-famous “The Girl from Ipanema” (“Garota de Ipanema” or “The Girl from Ipanema”) by Tom Jobim. The songs “Corcovado”, “One Note Samba” and “Desafinado” also became other world hits and true jazz standards.
In just a few years (in the early 60’s) bossa nova was fixed in the top lines of the American hit parade, and by the early 70’s became a hallmark of Brazilian music around the world. Tom Jobim’s music and lyrics clearly show romantic love and unrequited female beauty. Many songs were named after women’s names: ‘Teresa da Praia’ (Jobim’s first wife), ‘Ligia’, ‘Luiza’, ‘Izabella’. “Every woman I don’t have is a song I write,” Jobim will one day say. Perhaps that’s why there’s some special intimacy and sincerity in the gentle harmonies of bossa nova.
Another of the fathers of bossa nova (Joao Gilberto) believed that only a female vocalist could convey this mixture of musical richness and melancholy, which, in fact, is the heart of bossa nova music. For this reason, the most prominent conduit of bossa nova culture to the West has been the vocalist Astrud Gilberto (Joao Gilberto’s wife). The modest charm of her voice and her simple, uncluttered performance technique won over listeners all over the world. To this day, her understated and like a breeze of fresh wind manner of performance remains a hallmark of Brazilian bossa nova.
Unlike previous Afro-Cuban music (such as rumba or mambo), bossa nova did not become explicitly dance and entertainment music, if only because it was exported from Brazil and became the main performers by jazzmen.
Bossa nova took on the character of concert and club music for music lovers because of its more refined harmonies, sophisticated melody and quiet rhythm. A fashion for what is known as jazz-bossa (Jazz-bossa) began. This beautiful, gentle music with unusual (but close to jazz standards) harmonies became in a sense a counterbalance to the main trends of jazz development in the early 60’s.
The graceful, refined, emotional melodies of Jobim became a real alternative to traditional jazz for the jazz musicians of the 60s. Bossa nova was a kind of softening agent, becoming an attractive moment in jazz’s struggle for survival in the mid-60s.
The ’60s saw a memorable series of collaborations with Frank Sinatra (beginning with the Sinatra/Jobim album). In these, the understated elegance of Jobim’s music had Sinatra softening his penchant for performance pathos. “The last time I sang so tenderly was when I was sick with laryngitis,” Sinatra confessed at the end of the recording.