![]() Charlie Byrd, a well-known American guitarist, visited Brazil on a State Department-sponsored trip in the early 1960s and returned with a João Gilberto record. Indeed, American musicians were fascinated by bossa nova, with its distinctive rhythm, lush instrumentation, and themes of youth, leisure, and natural beauty. I received letters and telegrams from various illustrious composers … saying that bossa nova had been the biggest influence on American music in the last thirty years. Much to the contrary, I think what influenced American music was the bossa nova. Many people said that bossa nova was an Americanized phenomenon. Antônio Carlos Jobim rejected this analysis: Many Brazilian listeners were critical of the perceived influence of the United States on bossa nova, considering it simply an imitation of cool jazz. The musicians and fans of bossa nova, unlike many samba singers, were part of the Carioca middle class that frequented jazz clubs and had been exposed to North American music and movies. The presidency of Juscelino Kubitschek, which diverged from Getúlio Vargas’ nationalist model and diminished state control of the record industry, was a period in which the middle class had more buying power and the music industry had the opportunity to expand. The optimism of the era that Buarque described is evident in the songs’ lyrics, which casually describe the musicians’ environment: beaches, flowers, blue skies, and beautiful women. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commonsīossa nova, which literally means “new wave,” was a blending of samba and jazz that rose out of a guitar school formed in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighborhood in 1956. Gilberto’s recording of “The Girl from Ipanema” is one of the best-known bossa nova songs to this day. Together, they wrote some of the early songs that gained the movement attention. João Gilberto, one of the most successful bossa nova musicians, impressed Antonio Carlos Jobim with his new style of guitar-playing.
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