Search Results

This chapter analyzes the initial proliferation of bossa nova in the United States and United Kingdom in the early 1960s, primarily as a jazz and dance fad. By using material culled from top English-language periodicals of the era, it traces the popularity of bossa nova in the United States from its adoption by jazz musicians in the early 1960s, the invention of a dance to accompany the musical trend, and the ultimate rejection of bossa nova by purists in the jazz press. It also shows how the style’s initial popularity was partially due to the divisive racial politics that had overtaken jazz in that era, allowing the Otherness of bossa nova to temporarily offer an alternative for jazz musicians and fans.

This chapter details the transition of the bossa nova from ubiquitous fad to music for an older demographic to explain how the music became associated with seduction and the easy listening format. It features an analysis on the use of bossa nova in three films that feature international espionage and travel, with a focus on the pairing of bossa nova with moments of seduction and the postwar crisis in masculinity. It also traces the legacy of Astrud Gilberto’s career in the United States following the breakout success of her appearance on the recording of “The Girl from Ipanema” with Stan Getz and João Gilberto, and her influence on the extended legacy of bossa nova after its peak in popularity.

This chapter discusses the participation of musicians in social movements and cultural groups, and their active involvement in the progressive transformation of Brazilian society in the 1960s. First, it discusses the theory and practice of the Centro Popular de Cultura (cpc, People's Center for Culture). The chapter then examines the protest culture during the early years of military rule. The Bahian musicians and the competition between bossa nova artists and Brazilian rock artists are also examined. Finally, the chapter discusses what Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso developed as the “universal sound,” which they first performed at São Paulo's Festival de Música Popular Brasileira in 1967.

This chapter traces the history of Brazilian music in Los Angeles, covering the journey of the collation of rhythms known as samba into the rest of the Americas, to the emergence of bossa nova as a major cultural force, to the post-bossa Brazilian sound in the United States. It argues that as music moves, it operates according to its own logic. Influences are fluid: a bossa nova rhythm can morph easily into a second line, a two step can slide into a samba, and writing music is, thankfully, a far more interesting way to write history than history writing. But it is undeniable that, since the late 1930s, the language, swing, and palette of Brazilian music have influenced the world and changed music in the city of Los Angeles profoundly, while very few of us noticed.

The chapter analyzes the relationship between representations of youth identity and musical movements in Brazil during the 1960s. During that period the country was undergoing a series of political and socioeconomic transformations that stimulated a debate on the role of youth in the historical process. From 1964 onward, the right-wing military regime intensified this debate further by implementing modernizing capitalist policies in an authoritarian climate. By analyzing the three different youth identities mentioned in the title of this chapter, it is possible to identify the different symbolic responses and the cultural interventions of youth during that specific historical moment concurrent with the structuring of the modern music industry. The latter was the vehicle and articulator of youth identities because much of the cultural debate was centered upon the Brazilian popular music scene.

This chapter discusses ontography as a name for a general inscriptive strategy, one that uncovers the repleteness of units and their interobjectivity. From the viewpoint of metaphysics, ontography involves the revelation of object relationships without necessarily offering clarification or description of any kind. Ontography can take the form of a compendium, a record of things juxtaposed to demonstrate their overlap and imply interaction through collocation. The simple approach to such recording is the list. Ontography is an aesthetic set theory, in which a particular configuration is celebrated merely on the basis of its existence. A truly deliberate specimen of inventory ontography can be found in the Brazilian bossa nova. “Waters of March” does real ontological work.

This chapter introduces Richard Rodney Bennett's A Garland for Marjory Fleming for the young, relatively inexperienced performer. Here, the five songs are perfectly balanced to provide contrast of pace and mood. The supple vocal lines are not perhaps quite as simple as they may first appear: rhythms contain a few surprises, and subtle shadings underpin key moments in the text. The central song, ‘On Jessy Watsons Elopement’, in particular, requires good rhythmic articulation and some breadth of range and dynamic. The final piece, ‘Sonnet on a Monkey’, is a gem of artfulness and grace, sure to charm audiences, bringing the cycle to an end in exuberant, tongue-in-cheek vein.