![]() It was an urbane, sophisticated sound born not in the streets but on the beach, and in the cafes and apartments where he and his well-heeled friends hung out.Īccompanied by lucid, carefully researched notes, which place the emergence of bossa nova in the context of Brazil’s burgeoning modernity, the book and CD booklet admirably capture the atmosphere of the early 1960s, and relate the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Gilberto to architect Oscar Niemeyer’s audacious plans for Brazil’s new capital, Brasilia, and to the bold designs of Cesar Villela, whose striking album covers form the core of the illustrations in the book. With his gently strummed guitar and soft, almost whispered singing, Gilberto’s sound was a less frenetic version of the samba, the music of the working-class favelas. It was João Gilberto (whose wife Astrud was to become the face of bossa nova to the world) who first crystallised the from. Over two, near-definitive discs, and a lavishly illustrated book, Baker and Peterson reclaim bossa nova from the cheese merchants and refocus on the music itself.Įvocation is always a problem when trying just to “hear” music, particularly music that has such strong associations with an earlier era, but heard with fresh ears, bossa nova really is beautiful. THE ORIGINS OF the "new thing" in Ipanema and the neighbouring suburbs of Rio de Janeiro is meticulously documented inīossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s,a recent book and accompanying CD compilation by producer Stuart Baker and musical taste-maker Gilles Peterson. And, in the final ignominy, piped into elevators, bossa nova could provide a transient moistening of the soul that made the fact that you were ascending to your lawyer’s office to discuss your divorce seem momentarily unimportant. Tinkled in the background of the lounge bar, it made patrons think they were sophisticated and order expensive drinks that came with their own umbrellas. Played in the new self-service supermarkets, an ersatz version – the first “muzak” – was expected to make people stay longer and buy more washing powder. Cool, restrained and urbane, bossa nova was balm to the ears in an increasingly noisy world, and that made it ripe for plunder. Ironically, the music’s beauty was its downfall. ![]() ![]() I Dream of Jeanie,and bossa nova was the theme tune. Playboypictorials of the day, and now recreated by the US drama series ![]() These were the sunny days before the turmoil of the late 1960s, when men were still men and women still weren't, a world carefully evoked in Soon, it seemed to say, we would all be tanned and lovely, living in beige apartments, with washing machines and hostess trolleys, sipping lurid cocktails and smoking cigarettes that wouldn't give us lung cancer. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, its languid groove and dreamy lyrics captured the spirit of the times – the sense that we had arrived as a species and could now relax. bossa, bossa nova, latin, brazil, brasil, brasilian, brazilian, beach, vacation, travel, light, easy, breeze, summer, elevator music, elevator, cheesy, world beat, sunshine.Bossa nova – a Brazilian-Portuguese expression meaning “new thing” – was the first “world music” to break through to a global audience. A fresh bossa nova with a retro vintage vibe, perfect muzak for TV commercials and radio advertisements, YouTube videos, elevators, lifts, supermarkets, department store, cafes, lounges, hotel lobbies and cocktail bars.
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