Simple reflections on bossa nova and samba.

 Joao Gilberto (1931--2019)

The passing of a Brazilian musical symbol such as João Gilberto a few weeks ago did not have an impact, as one might expect. This leads us to reflect a little on these two styles, the Bossa Nova and the Samba, associated with Rio de Janeiro, and to wonder why one of the two styles keeps a healthy (and fortunately!), while the other, seems definitively to the Brazilian musical museum, under a layer of dust. And to wonder why, paradoxically, outside Brazil, the Bossa surpasses the samba, significantly. 

1. La Bossa nova abroad 

Chet Baker (1928--1988)

-Seen from abroad, Bossa is built on American hamonic foundations, jazz, although its basic rhythm is samba, of African origin, on a slower pace. In 1964, bossa gained international status in the United States, not only thanks to Stan Getz, but other big names like Gerry Mulligan, Bill Evans, singers like Ella Fitgerald, Chet Baker, and of course Frank Sinatra. With the help of great Brazilian names com Jobim, João Gilberto, or Sergio Mendes. The «song» format of the bossas - we will come back to it - will assimilate the style with more ease. 

 -The recovery of the bossa by the commercial world made it common to us, and it would be interesting to study the condition of each one, in a bossa atmosphere, cool, of little disturbing volume, which earned him the title of elevator music. A climate anything but stressful, in an America then in full economic boom. We are relaxed, therefore, we consume. Musically, however, the harmonies of the style are much more complex than those of the samba. 

-The Americans, still commercially imaginative, in the 1960s described everything and anything as “bossa nova”, from the fashionable fridge to creating a dance that even was non-existent in Brazil. 

-Since the late 1960s, many musical movements have assimilated bossa, and continue to do so. Even England was won by fever and groups such as The Style Council, Everything but the Girl, Sade or Matt Bianco adopted its musical aestheticism. 

 Sade Adu, bossa,  jazz, in glamorous style

 -Other trendy atmospheres, starting in the 80s, such as Lounge music, perfectly matched this search for climate (more than music) 

-The mystery remains, but the Japanese market is immense, and many Brazilian Bossanovist artists live a career there independent of their homeland. 

 -The English DJ’s, which are also the cause of the return of vinyl, have by their curiosity rediscovered artists like Marcos Valle, Joyce Moreno and others, giving them a second life. 

-The economy of medium (voice/ guitar), have facilitated the integration of style in bars, restaurants, but once again, more as a background musician. 

 -Still, some songs like “A Garota de Ipanema”, “Samba do verão”, Desafinado, “Maria Ninguém”, and a few others have been real classics musically. 

2-Bossa nova, on the other hand, born of the creativity of some inventive musicians, was created, as we know, in the Copacabana apartments, around 1958, and was interpreted intimately for this reason. 

 Bossa Jam scession, in  the  apartment of Menescal

-As stated above, bossa is song music. Good, middle-class, upper-class young people, meanwhile, the samba rodas were sung to the lungs, in the open air, with some quantity of beer, but, and they were often given an improvised “timing”. 

 -This does not mean that the samba player is a lesser musician, as evidenced by the choro, a rather instrumental style that requires great dexterity. Even if great sambistas (sometimes from the choro), like Cartola (photo), Nelson Cavaquinho or Paulinho da Viola have created some of the most beautiful pages of the samba, it is a variant not exported, and the vision of the «gringo» restricted to a frenetic hypnotic rhythm, which characterize the sambas-enredo, that is to say the sambas of carnival competition, perceived by foreigners as musically poor. São Paulo has also known great authors of sambas of classics little known outside Brazil. 


 -Once again, the mystery remains with the Japanese who have many samba schools. 

 -Consider the golden age of samba between 1920 and 1930, sometimes known as the marchinha, whose often humorous or even naughty texts had difficulty crossing the border because of language. The first samba schools were born at that time. 

 -To be popular and festive, everyone can improvise and participate in a “pagode”. 

 A tambourine, and it’s samba until past the hour... 

 A metal can will do the job, in short, we can hardly imagine a band of musicians proposing to celebrate by singing all night from bossas novas. 

-Following some singers of bossa nova, there is a desire to change the genre. First by mingling with the sambistas of the favelas (like Nara Leão); then by politicizing the texts at the beginning of the 1964 dictatorship. It was the end of love, of smiles and flowers, and of his indolence. 


 -Finally, while the pillars of the bossa do not follow, the waves of new generations of samba follow one another with talent. In addition, almost every state possesses its characteristics concerning the elements of the samba (rhythms, harmonies, instruments), while the bossa remains a fixed style. 

 Conclusion: these few remarks make sense, but why, unlike jazz, did the bossa remain chilly. There is no doubt that historians such as Cravo Albin, Nelson Motta, Rui Castro, Sergio Cabral and others have points of view to present, and here I am no longer posing as a journalist, but as a curious person about the history of music. The fact that Brazil is a country of celebration seems to me to be a very weak response in a country that has a number of virtuoso folk music beyond the average, and I am not satisfied with the eternal dichotomy of “erudite music” and “festive music”. What light, joy and rhythms are not found in Egberto Gismonti, Hamilton de Holanda or Hermeto Pascoal….