50 Years of bossa bliss.

• Author: Holston, Mark
• Position: MUSIC NOTES

Perhaps never in the history of popular culture has a music movement evolved so rapidly and produced such far-ranging influences as Brazil's bossa nova. When it appeared almost magically on university campuses and in the clubs of Rio de Janeiro a half century ago, it sparked a cultural revolution that reverberated throughout Brazil and beyond to virtually every corner of the globe.

The sultry new sound, a stylish modernization of Brazil's earthy samba, emerged just when the country's growing middle class was energized by a widely-held belief that their land was finally on the verge of attaining the international stature it had long been denied. Bossa nova, or the "new thing," as it is loosely translated, became an instant soundtrack for this surge of national optimism. The hip and sunny disposition of the new style quickly seduced an entire generation of young Brazilians eager for a break with the somewhat staid popular music of the era. It also spawned parallel movements that revitalized the arts in the country--from painting, graphic design, and sculpture to theater and film, which was dubbed Cinema Novo. Bossa's vivacious spirit was even reflected in the space age architectural creations of Oscar Niemeyer that began to reshape Brazil's urban skyline.

Two artists, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto, are universally recognized as bossa's leading figures. Jobim's stunning compositions, with their ingenious mixture of classical and jazz influences, and Gilberto's whispery voice and signature guitar style, which identified the music's rhythmic identity, came to symbolize the core characteristics of bossa. While Jobim and Gilberto were the first to crystallize the stylistic hybrid's melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ingredients, they were soon joined by dozens of other supremely talented composers, lyricists, singers, arrangers, and instrumentalists whose contributions broadened bossa's focus far beyond the referential touchstone of the Jobim-Gilberto partnership.

Bossa's global reach was astounding. In the US, such classics as Jobim's "Desafinado" and "The Girl from Ipanema" became pop music hits on the radio, earning critical acclaim and Grammy awards while offering the public an exotic and jazzy alternative to the pervading rock music of the day. Dozens of leading jazz instrumentalists and vocalists in the US, Europe, Japan, and other nations embraced the style, producing hundreds of recordings, and making...