Bossa Nova: Here's what March 1963 Sounded Like

I'm writing in Cape May, comfortable and safe inside for an extra day while weird winter weather plays out an under-predicted storm. On a recent weekend when I was here to attend the TEDxCapeMay conference, I had to leave earlier than expected. The videos from that conference are online now, so to close that loop I'm watching them while I stay in this same place longer, waiting for the weather to calm down. Visit this link to see TEDxCapeMay videos: TEDxCapeMay
Visit this link to see TED's monster menu: TED talks
Be careful, because one video leads to another, and then another.

I almost always find TED videos inspiring, and I am especially fond of those on music topics. Avi Wisnia got me thinking of bossa nova this morning, a summery kind of music that transports one back to the 1960s when I would have been a curly-haired toddler living in Cape May full-time. Wisnia at TEDxCapeMay describes finding inspiration right here in Cape May after a case of writer's block:

But what is bossa nova?

I've been aware of the term since I was ten.

The Instrument with vintage 1970s music.

My parents required that I take a keyboard instrument, and I was allowed to choose between piano and organ. I reasoned that all of those buttons would make the organ less boring than the piano. I practiced, but never gained much proficiency. I did learn to 'comp' chords and sightread melodies, important skills for a music major. One of those organ rhythm buttons was the bossa nova (see top photo). I wasn't a good enough organist to keep a steady beat, so while I knew what the rhythm sounded like, I never was adept enough to apply it to my renditions of 1970s pop tunes.

Bossa nova developed in Brazil in the 1950s and became popular in the 1960s. Literally, the term means 'new trend' in Portuguese. It evolved from the samba genre and with the addition of some jazz features. Specifically, complex, jazz-type chords are used. These have added ninths, elevenths, even thirteenths, built up from the chord root, and often these added intervals are altered (usually sharped, I think). You'll hear this stuff in jazz, but what makes bossa nova different is that the melody often goes to that added altered chord note. This might not sound innovative to our 21st century ears, but it was fancy back in the 1960s. You'll probably hear soft guitars and pianos accompanying whispered vocals and very little percussion other than cymbals played with brushes. Eventually the style got watered-down to what we would consider elevator music, but take a listen to this vintage bit:

Bossa nova infiltrated the popular music of the era, and in 1967, Frank Sinatra put out his own bossa nova album with the help of Antonio Carlos Jobim. Here, they sing a medley of bossa nova tunes in black and white:

Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994) was the leading composer of bossa nova music. He was born in Rio de Janeiro, and his parents separated soon after. His mother took her children to live near the beach in Ipanema. After his father died, his mother was free to remarry. Jobim's stepfather encouraged the boy's musical interests, and Ipanema inspired him...as we all know...(or should)...

The record was released in 1964, but it was recorded in March 1963, (a month very important to me since I was born in it). João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto sing the lyrics in Portuguese and English (by Vinicius de Moraes and Norman Gimbel), and Stan Getz adds his tenor saxophone. So this is what March 1963 sounds like: smooth!