Bossa nova is a now internationally famous style of music that evolved and grew from jazz in the 1950’s and 60’s in Brazil. It primarily originated from Rio de Janeiro, and even though Brazil was going through a rough patch at the time due to the unequal distribution of wealth between classes, it was enjoyed in primarily middle- to upper-class spaces. It moved away from the more traditional styles of music that were performed live in ballrooms and each had their own special dance that accompanied it to be played on the record players and music devices in parlors. This being said, the culture of Brazil is vibrant and social, so the image of a more casual, toned-down parlor is still different than what we might picture for the American versions at that time.
The bossa nova beat is traced back to samba, which is then traced back to jazz, and in order to really understand bossa nova one must have a basic understanding of these two genres that it belongs to. If jazz is an enormous umbrella term to refer to many different nuances, origins and styles of music (which it is), then samba is a slightly smaller but still very wide umbrella under the category of jazz. Jazz is thought to originate in the South of the United States, which in many ways it did, but there are many different well-known and talented jazz musicians in South and Latin America as well as many different styles of jazz that developed there along with them and were then brought to the United States. Samba is also mostly known for its development in the United States as well, mostly as a form of almost exoticized, flashy dance competitions, but outside of that conception it has many popular musical variations in almost every Latin country. From this branch on the tree of jazz came bossa nova, as a cousin of salsa with a hint of blues.
Bossa nova in Portuguese means “new wave” in English, and often centers on ideas of longing, homesickness, love, women, and the beauty of nature (particularly of Brazilian nature, of which there is much rich variety since it is such a geodiverse country). As mentioned before, its apolitical nature has been noted as strange in context of the time that it emerged in, as there was much social unrest due to a huge lower class and small middle and upper classes.
Some of my favorite bossa nova songs are “Corcovado”, a mountain in Rio de Janeiro, by Joao Gilberto, “The Girl from Ipanema/Garota de Ipanema”, and “Manha de Carnaval” and “Ahiê” by Joao Donato. All of these songs, as do all of the songs of this genre, have a circular rhythm and repeat several patterns of chords in a natural, relaxing way instead of following a more traditional sheet music style.
Comments
Wow, Sabrina, great post! I unfortunately have never heard about Bossa nova before. I did not know that this style of music stemmed from jazz in the 1950s. Though I never really immersed myself in Brazilian culture, I always found the country interesting. I will definitely check this out.
Thanks for this great post on bossa nova Sabrina! I appreciated the list of songs you gave and listened to both “Corcovado” and “Ahiê”! Both were lovely and I’m not exactly how to describe it, but it was dreamy in a way? The songs did have a circular rhythm that made it so catchy!