Brazilian Bossa Nova

   

    There is an endless number of musical cultures from around the world, but let's zoom in on a particular musical genre from the country of Brazil. Bossa Nova is a musical style I've been surrounded by for many years. My brother studied a lot of different jazz genres while he was in school and he ended up playing a lot of Bossa Nova music. My aunt and uncle also lived in brazil as missionaries for several years and were directly exposed to all musical cultures in their area. Because of this, I have a lot to talk about when it comes to Bossa Nova, so lets get started!

    So first off, what exactly is Bossa Nova? According to masterclass.com, the name of the genre actually translates to "new style". It was a style that was created by combining the musical complexity of American jazz with the traditional Brazilian genre of Samba. It's typically a much more laid back version of Samba that doesn't have the same energetic feel, but uses a lot of the same syncopated rhythms. The instruments it uses is what really separates it from the American jazz genre. The beat is of course carried by a standard drum set, but other percussion such as the surdo (a large bass drum) and the claves (small sticks that are clicked together) add a lot to the rhythmic patterns in the music. Double bass is also a very common instrument used in the music to give it a more relaxed feel. The lead instruments will almost always consist of a classical nylon string guitar and some kind of aerophone like saxophone. Neat fact, it is common for aerophone players to often have a very breathy tone, which is also a style the vocalists of Bossa Nova music use. On that topic, vocals also play a huge roll in the musical style. On top of the breathy tone, it is also a famous style to sing with a bit more of a nasal voice. With all of this said, here is an example of the kind of music we're going to continue to discuss. This is a very famous Bossa Nova tune called "The Girl From Ipanema".

    So let's now get a little more into the history of the music. Justlanded.com explained that Bossa Nova really took off around the mid 1950's. There are arguments as to who actually developed the root style of the music, but no one denies that Joao Gilberto played a huge roll in developing the genre. Gilberto was an acoustic guitar player that developed the rhythmic style of the guitar in Bossa Nova music. With the chords and harmonies influenced by a lot of jazz theory, he came up with a type of muted guitar rhythm that is so prominently used in Bossa Nova today. It was around 1958 that Gilberto used this rhythmic pattern in a song by Elizabeth Cardoso called "Cancao do Amor Damais". That muted rhythm he used in the record is what people consider the birth of Bossa Nova music. 

    The heart of Bossa Nova really came from when a lot of big name artists started collaborating to create more of the music. The first song shown in the blog, The Girl From Ipanema, was actually written by another famous Bossa Nova artist named Antonio Carlos Jobim. In that song, he collaborated with Joao Gilberto. Both being from Brazil, Jobim and Gilberto did a lot of work together, and legend has it that an American traveler one day came across the two of them gigging together and immediately brought the news back to America of the music he had discovered. Because of this, a lot of American jazz musicians such as Stan Getz traveled down to play with Jobim and Gilberto. When he met with them, Stan Getz, a saxophone player from Philadelphia, also helped record on The Girl From Ipanema (link). If you listen closely in the song, you can hear him using that breathy style of playing I mentioned earlier. These collaborations between artists from both Brazil and America led to a surge of popularity in Bossa Nova music. The popularity reached America around 1962 when a Bossa Nova concert was held at Carnegie Hall in Ney York.  

    Now of course, similar to how a lot of musical genres give birth to a new styles of dance, Bossa Nova of course did as well. Unlike swing, Bossa Nova is actually a dance I have never tried, but have always been interested in. To better familiarize myself with it, I went over to heritageinstitute.com to learn a bit more about the style. The dance takes ideas from several styles and kind of mixes it all into one. Styles like the box step waltz and blues techniques like pulsing your steps to the beat is included. A big aspect of it also comes from Rumba, with the inclusion of a lot of hip movement while strolling around the dance floor. Because the music is of course slower, the dancing is slow too, and like I said, it's more of an elegant stroll than a dance. Now, even though the dance is done with two partners, often times a lot of the moves will be done independently but also in sync. It's really a neat dance that you just have to watch to understand, so here it is.

      There really is a lot to Bossa Nova. If you're interested, I've attached a few more songs that are at the top of the charts when it comes to Bossa Nova. With it's relationship to Samba, it really is an essential part of Brazilian musical culture. I have a quick story to better elaborate on that. One time my brother was gigging downtown and my family was there listening. He started playing The Girl From Ipanema on guitar and my aunt immediately started singing along to it in Portuguese. During her time in Brazil, she was surrounded by it everywhere she went. No one in that country doesn't know how to sing along with it, it's part of them. It shows how important the genre is to the people there, and it really shows how big an effect music has on the country. 

These blogs have been a lot of fun! I've enjoyed sharing all of these different cultures and often ranting about my love for dancing. It's been a thrill! Now go listen to these Bossa Nova songs! 

Works Cited:

Masterclass Staff. "Guide To Brazilian Bossa Nova Music: The Basics Of Bossa Nova." Masterclass.com, 2 Nov 2021, https://www.masterclass.com/articles/guide-to-brazilian-bossa-nova-music#a-brief-history-of-bossa-nova-music-in-brazil

Verity, Michael. "6 Famous Bossa Nova Jazz musicians." Live About dot com, 17 Mar 2017, https://www.liveabout.com/famous-bossa-nova-jazz-musicians-2039697

"A brief history of Bossa Nova." Just Landed, https://www.justlanded.com/english/Brazil/Brazil-Guide/Culture/A-brief-history-of-Bossa-Nova

"BossaNova."ABC, https://www.abc.net.au/rn/features/bossanova/about.htm#:~:text=Bossa%20Nova%20began%20on%20the,new%20style%20of%20Portuguese%20lyrics.

"Bossa Nova" Heritage Institute, http://www.heritageinstitute.com/danceinfo/descriptions/bossa_nova.htm