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| For the first half of its history Ipanema was obscured by the sparkle of Copacabana. The neighborhood lived among the peacefulness of its squares, beaches and low houses until the dawn of the 60's, when a powerful artists colony exploded across the planet. With French and Italian help, Black Orpheus by Tom Jobin and Vinicius de Moraes was made into a movie that captured the attention of first the country and then the world. The film was empowered by Rio Carnaval, a timeless myth of lost love and a new kind of smooth samba. The music would soon be universally known and loved as bossa nova music by its signature song: | ||||||||
| The Girl from Ipanema | ||||||||
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In 1894 Vila Ipanema was founded, with 19 streets and 2 parks. The neighborhood started to grow faster with the arrival of streetcars in 1902. Ipanema became a household name in the 1950's and 60's - it is the birthplace of Bossa Nova. The whole world learned about the Brazilian jazz form and the Rio Sul neighborhood soon after the song (recorded in New York City) was released
This, of course, was the hit song "The Girl from Ipanema" by Antonio Carlos [Ton] Jobim and Vinícius de Morais, both Ipanema residents who hung out at Bar Veloso. |
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| You can still come to Ipanema and sit in this most famous of bars and eventually hear this most covered of songs where it was actually written in 1962. To hear it sung live visit one of these spots. | ||||||||
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English lyrics by Norman Gimbel |
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| Helo: | ||||||||
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A Cruise with the Muse |
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from object of desire in the 60's to empowered feminine in the 90's |
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As for the
famous girl, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes did in
fact see her as they sat in the Veloso bar, during the
winter of 1962—not just once, but several times, and not
always on her way to the beach but also her way to school,
to the dressmaker, and even to the dentist.
This was mostly because Heloisa Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto, better known as Helo, who was eighteen years of age, five feet, eight inches tall, with green eyes and long, flowing black hair, lived in Rua Montenegro and was already the object of much admiration among patrons of the Veloso, where she would frequently stop to buy cigarettes for her mother—and leave to a cacophony of wolf-whistles. Heloisa lived at Rua Montenegro 22, between the Prudente de Morais and the beach. After a prolonged period of restraint, Helo did the 
obvious thing. She posed for the Brazilian Playboy in 1987.
This was likely good for
her
modeling agency and a clothing store, both which happen to
be named Garota de Ipanema.
I In 2001, Helô Pinheiro opened her “Garota de Ipanema” boutique in Sao Paulo, catering mostly to women and offering a variety of beachwear. S he was sued by the heirs to their fathers' copyright recordings for using "The Girl from Ipanema" lyrics on T-shirts and allegedly as her boutique's name, despite it being the composer's intention. Ipanema locals were very upset, where her story is equally part of the folklore. In February 2004, after much legal wrangling, the court ruled in favor of Helô Pinheiro stating “…without her there would not have been the song”.
She has relaxed a bit now that her children are grown. Helô and Fernando live in Sao Paolo with their son Fernando Jr, who suffers from serious learning difficulties. Her daughter Kiki is a former model turned business-woman, daughter Georgiani is a psychologist, and daughter Ticiane is a very successful super-model. Helô’s main occupation these days centers on her Garota de Ipanema boutiques in Sao Paolo, where she sells a variety a women’s beachwear. And at the age of “you do the math” Helô is still a looker. She and Ticiane appeared in a photo shoot in the March 2003 issue of the Brazilian Playboy magazine.
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| Garota de Ipanema | ||||||||
Rua Vinicius de Moraes and Rua Prudente de Morais, Ipanema -
on the cornerRenamed after the song, which according to legend was written here in 1962, the Garota de Ipanema Restaurant is very proud of its draught beer, and features a large wine list from it's wine cellar. You will also find a great variety of specialty drinks. The corner location is still one of the world's great angles of repose for watching the bathing beauties from Ipanema stroll by http://www.garotaipanema.com.br open to the public daily from 12 a.m. until the last client walks out.
Toca do Vinícius Rua Vinícius de Morais, 129 2247-5227] Not far down the street from the bar. A small shop devoted to Bossa Nova, with memorabilia, CD's, books and songbooks. If you are lucky, you will catch a free performance . |
n
her 1996 autobiography, “Por Causa do Amor”, she writes:
“The middle class philosophy was to discourage and even
repress any attempts to do anything other than bringing up
children and being the perfect housewife”.
Fernando, to whom she was recently engaged, and her army
general father refused to allow her, at age 21, to leave
home. In 1960 less than 12% of all jobs in Brazil were
held by women and only 20% of all college students were
women. Brazilian culture respected machismo rules
during this time. Helo became a symbol of an empowered
yet feminine individual who was challenging a society that
until 1991 had made it legal for a man to kill his wife if
he thought she was cheating on him. 
| João Gilberto | ||||||||
For seven lean years after losing his Rio radio gig he was out of regular work. By his mid-twenties João was depressed and a heavy user of marijuana(maconha ). He had no fixed address, drifting from friend to friend and acquaintance to acquaintance, living off their kindness and contributing only his genius to the household, and then generally only in the evening. His appearance was unkempt, his hair long, his clothes ragged. Almost no one would hire him. João’s girlfriend at the time, Sylvia Telles (later a successful bossa nova singers), left him for another musician. A visit to Puerto Alegre rehabilitated him, where he became the toast of the large but provincial gaucho city through the sponsorship of musician Luiz Telles from the gaucho singing group Quitandinha Serenaders. This was followed by an intense stay at his sister's home in the historic mining town Diamantina, where his elder sister Dadainha lived with her husband. This is where he perfected his new style. João was ready for a return to Rio. João Gilberto soon looked up Tom Jobim, whose music career had blossomed since his earlier acquaintance. Tom was able to work full-time as a composer, as well as recording arranger and producer at the British-owned record label Odeon (now EMI). When João played “Bim-Bom” and “Hô-Ba-La-Lá” for Tom, the latter was impressed with the possibilities inherent in the beat: it simplified the rhythm of samba and allowed a lot of room for modern harmonies of the kind Tom was creating. He though the song he had written with Vinicius de Moraes at least a year earlier, “Chega de Saudade.” would make an ideal match.
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| Stan Getz's version of The Girl from Ipanema featuring his tenor saxophone helped popularize the Bossa Nova sound. In 2005, this was covered by João's daughter, Bebel Gilberto, and sung as a duet with smooth jazz saxophone star Kenny G. |
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Black Orpheus
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Black Orpheus (Orfeu
Negro in Portuguese) is a 1959 film made in Brazil by French director Marcel Camus. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which is an adaptation of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting it in the modern context of Rio de Janeiro during the Carnaval. The film was an international co-production between production companies in Brazil, France and Italy. Only a year before (November 1957), Antonio Carlos Jobim (and Newton Mendonca) had released the album Desafinado, featuring this new style of samba, incorporating it with jazz stylings, poetic lyrics sung by João Gilberto, and a 4 on 3 stammering rhythm. Jobim and Luis Bonfa wrote the soundtrack to the motion picture, featuring songs such as "Manhã de Carnaval" (written by Luiz Bonfá) and "A felicidade" that were to become Bossa nova classics.
With only a draft version, in 1954, playright Vinicius' original play won the contest commemorating the Fourth Centennial Celebration of the founding of the City of São Paulo. Later in 1956, during the production of his play, he was introduced to a relatively unknown pianist, Antonio Carlos Jobim, who was commissioned with writing the music for the play. Jobim composed the music for Se Todos Fossem Iguais a Você, Um Nome de Mulher, and several other songs included in the production. The most popular song from the show was "Se Todos Fossem Iguais A Você" ("Someone to Light Up My Life"). Later, when the play was turned into a film, producer Sacha Gordine did not want to use any of the existing music from the play. Gordine asked de Moraes and Jobim for a new score for the film Black Orpheus (1959). Viniciusaway in Montevideo, Uruguay at the time, working for the Itamaraty (the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and so he and Jobim were only able to write three songs, primarily over the telephone ("A Felicidade", "Frevo",and "O Nosso Amor"). This collaboration proved successful, and Vinicius went on to pen the lyrics to some of Jobim's most popular songs. The film, directed by Frenchman Marcel Camus and with an all-Black cast, achieved great acclaim in 1958, winning the Palme d'Or and an Oscar. The mythically charged film tells the story of a charmed guitar player who must eventually make peace with death. The story was grafted onto one of the great living myths, Orpheus and Euridice, using Carnaval, Rio de Janeiro, favelas and Condomble to create the parallel other worlds. "Black Orpheus" remains at the top of the surprisingly small list of Carnaval films.
The film begins with Orpheus and his fiancée going to get a marriage license. After they get the license his fiancée agrees to buy her own ring because Orpheus wants to get his guitar out of the pawn shop for the carnival. The clerk at the courthouse makes reference to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, causing Orpheus's fiancée to get jealous and assume that there is another woman in his life. When Orpheus gets home, he finds that his neighbor Serafina's (Léa Garcia) cousin named Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) has been visiting. Death is after Eurydice. The story unfolds around the preparation and the celebration of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro until Orpheus unknowingly kills her by turning on the lights. He continues to seek her at the Bureau of Missing Persons where a janitor takes pity on him and leads him to the basement where a Candomble ceremony is taking place. At the gate,
there is a dog named Cerberus, after the three-headed dog of
Hades in Greek mythology. At this ritual, Orpheus is able to
channel the spirit of Eurydice through the body of an old woman.
Orpheus calls out to her and asks to see her, but Eurydice begs
him not to look toward the voice, lest he lose her forever. When
he looks back to see Eurydice, her spirit leaves the woman and
he loses her forever (This is in direct correlation to the Greek
myth in which Orpheus is able to save his love Eurydice but
loses her forever when he looks back at her). Benedito to pick up the guitar and play so that the sun may rise again. Zeca is able to play the guitar and the sun does rise. A little girl comes by, gives Zeca a single flower, and the film ends with the three of them dancing. The soundtrack sold millions. United States jazz musicians like Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd began to cover Orpheus numbers like "A Felicidade" and "Manha de Carnaval" (Morning of Carnival) with as much enthusiasm as other popular Jobim songs like "Corvacado" and "One Note Samba."
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![[black+orpheus.bmp]](black_orpheus3.jpg)
Enjoy bossa nova
music in Rio de Janeiro:
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To Samba, they
added Jazz to create "the new beat" |
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It
was the |
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Bossa-Nova can be translated as "the new beat" or "new wave". Antonio Carlos Jobim is credited as naming the Bossa Nova to describe João Gilberto's new musical style, although a few even give him single-handed credit for creating the rhythm from his earlier collaboration with the multi-talented playright, Vinicius de Moraes, when the two collaborated to create the songs for his musical "Black Orpheus or Orfeo Negro." João did record the first song, Definado [Out of Tune], written by Jobin in July 1957, which first presented the defining signatures of his guitar with violao gago (stuttering guitar) and canto flado (spoken singing)singing style.
Bossa nova is a
refined version of samba, de-emphasizing the percussive aspect
of its rhythm and enriching the melodic and harmonic content.
Rather than relying on the traditional Afro-Brazilian percussive
instruments, João Gilberto often eschewed all accompaniment
except his guitar, which he uses as a percussive as well as a
harmonic instrument, incorporating what would be the role of the
tamborim in a full batucada band. The singing style he developed
is almost whispering, economical, and without vibrato. He
creates his tempo tensions by singing ahead or behind the
guitar.
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| Harbinger of the 60's | ||||
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In 1958,
singer Elizete Cardoso released the album Canção
do Amor Demais, marking the beginning of Bossa Nova.
This record consists wholly of compositions by the
Jobim-Vinicius partnership, or by one of the two (Canção do
Amor Demais, Luciana, Estrada Branca, Chega de Saudade, Outra
Vez...). The recording also featured a relatively unknown João
Gilberto on two tracks.
Shortly after this recording, João Gilberto made his own
debut single of "Chega de Saudade", followed by the 1959 LP,
Chega de Saudade. The song turned into a hit,
launching Gilberto's career and the bossa nova craze. Besides a
number of Jobim compositions, the album featured older sambas
and popular songs from the 1940s and '50s, all performed in
Gilberto's distinctive style. This album was followed by two
more in 1960 and 1961, by which time the singer featured new
songs by a younger generation of performer/ composers such as
Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal. In 2000, the João Gilberto version of the song Chega de Saudade was made a member of the Grammy Hall of Fame. A year later, in 2001, the album Chega de Saudade, was made an inaugural member of the Latin Grammy Awards Hall of Fame.
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| Breakthrough Recording | ||||
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Singer Astrud Gilberto
was a housewife when she was asked to sing the English lyrics
at the last minute in the New York
recording studio.
On March 18, 1963, the studio began its recording of "Getz/Gilberto". Joao Gilberto was resistant, refusing at first to leave his hotel room to go to the studio. The only Brazilian fluent in English present at the session was Gilberto's wife, Astrud. Stan Getz asks her to sing "Corcodavo" and "The Girl From Impanema". She has no training or experience, but Stan likes her voice. "Gilberto and Jobim didn't want Astrud on it. Astrud had made the trip to New York as the translator for Jobin and her husband Joao. As a non-professional at the time she was never paid anything for this historic recording. Getz had been introduced to the sound by Charlie Byrd and the two had recorded first USA released bossa nova album together, Jazz Samba [1962] which was a big hit supported by the success of the song “Desafinado” This Getz / Gilberto album stayed on the pop charts for 96 weeks. It won the 1964 Grammy Award for Record Of The Year and the album won for Best Jazz Performance and Album of the Year - a total of four Grammys. In July of 1964, "The Girl From Ipanema" reaches #5 on the Pop charts, and the album "Getz/Gilberto" reaches #2, edged out only by the Beatle's "A Hard Day's Night". It remains the classic Bossa Nova recording in any musicologist's collection. Astrud Gilberto, who sang on "The Girl from Ipanema" and "Corcovado", on this first of two Getz/Gilberto albums, became an international sensation. |
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| Artist Eccentric João | ||||
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João Gilberto lived
in the United States from 1962 until 1980, except for two years
in Mexico. The year 1976 saw the release of "The Best of
Two Worlds," a reunion with Stan Getz, featuring singer Miúcha,
(sister of Chico Buarque), who had become Gilberto's second wife
in April 1965. João Gilberto returned to Brazil in 1980. The
following year saw the release of Brasil, with guests
Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, who in the late
1960s had founded the Tropicalia movement, a fusion of Brazilian
popular music with foreign pop. Caetano Veloso told a French magazine, “To give you an idea, sometimes he decides, just for fun, to imitate people. He imitates the way of walking, the way of talking, of anyone. When he feels like it, he even imitates Fred Astaire”. Caetano’s sister, singing star Maria Bethânia, says João Gilberto “simply is music. He plays. He sings. Without stopping. Day and night. He is very, very strange. But he is the most fascinating being, the most fascinating person, that I have encountered on the surface of the earth. João, he is mystery. He hypnotizes.” João Gilberto has long had a reputation as being an eccentric perfectionist. He lives in an apartment in Leblon, Rio de Janeiro, refusing interviews and avoiding crowds. He has been known to walk out on performances in response to an audience he considers disrespectful, or out of theaters possessing acoustics below his standards, and on several occasions requested that the air conditioning be turned off at concert venues. Yet he continues to perform to sell-out crowds in Brazil as well as in Europe, North America, and Japan. |
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| Bossa Nova: Another sixties seduction | ||||
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Brazilian author
Ruy Castro, in his book Bossa Nova, says that "bossa" was already
in use in the fifties by musicians as a word to characterize
someone's knack for playing or singing idiosyncratically. He
cites a claim that the term "bossa nova" might have first been
used in publicity for a concert given by the Grupo Universitário
Hebraico do Brasil (University Hebrew Group of Brazil) in 1958
for a group consisting of Sylvinha Telles, Carlinhos Lyra, Nara
Leão, Luizinho Eça, Roberto Menescal, et al. |
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| Part of Brazilian Jazz | ||||
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Bossa Nova music has been stirring of
late after a long period of being largely defined by its standards.
Always an important part of the larger category of Brazilian
Jazz, its period as a mainstream movement is
considered short - from 1958 to 1963. The musical style shares its
roots with samba, Rio and the sixties. It favors the guitar over
percussion and is more complex harmonically. The initial
excitement of releases by Gilberto and the 1959 film
Black Orpheus, followed by the
unsurpassed first Bossa Nova single, The Getz/Gilberto
recording "The Girl From Ipanema", edited to include only the
singing of Astrud Gilberto (Gilberto's then-wife) has made the
music timeless and able to withstand substantial "watering down"
by popular artists in the decades that have followed. From the mid-nineties, various other European artists reached out to Bossa Nova for inspiration, mixing electronic music into it and bringing new creations sometimes referred to as Bossa Electrica, TecnoBossa, etc. which still permeates the air of lounge bars of Europe and Asia today. From this newer crop of artists came new singers like Bebel Gilberto, daughter of Bossa Nova co-creator João Gilberto and singer Miúcha, and new European bands like Nouvelle Vague to name a few, who used both conventional Bossa Nova style and modern views to further interpret this fabulously soothing style of music |
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| The phrase "Bossa Nova" | ||||
| In Brazil, to do something with "Bossa" is to do it with particular charm and natural flair, as in an innate ability. "Bossa" was used to refer to any new "trend" or "fashionable wave" within the artistic beach-culture of Ipanema. Tom Jobim (January 25, 1927 in Rio de Janeiro – December 8, 1994 in New York City) remained a productive musician all his life. Rio's international airport is now known as Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport. Jobim is acknowledged as one of the most influential popular composers of the 20th century. | ||||
| 2008- the 50th Anniversary | ||||
| A March 3, 2008 50th anniversary free concert on Ipanema beach featured veteran performers veterans like Roberto Menescal, Carlos Lyra and Oscar Castro-Neves, as well as contemporary artists like Bossacucanova, a group that mixes bossa nova with electronica. Solange Kafuri, an organizer of the show, said, “Bossa nova has its eternal audience, and there is also a new one.” | ||||
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| Astrud Gilberto | ||||
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Astrud Gilberto was born Astrud Weinert, the daughter of a Brazilian mother and a German father, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, and was raised in Rio de Janeiro. In 1959, she married João Gilberto, and later emigrated to the U.S. in 1963, when she sang on this album. Unfortunately, Stan Getz' affair with Astrud Gilberto brought an end to his musical partnership with her and her husband. João Gilberto and Astrud divorced in the mid-sixties. |
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Astrud began her singing career as a singer of bossa nova and American jazz standards, but recorded her own compositions in the 1970s. Her repertoire includes The Shadow of your Smile, It Might As Well Be Spring, Love Story, Fly Me To The Moon, Day By Day, Here's That Rainy Day, and Look To The Rainbow. She has recorded songs in Brazilian Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Japanese. According to a 1996 United Kingdom Channel 4 production “Without Walls: The Girl from Ipanema” that recording is the fifth most played record in the history of the world. |
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Fly me
to the moon And let me play among the stars Let me see what spring is like On Jupiter and Mars In other words hold my hand In other words darling kiss me Fill
my life with song |
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| by Astrud Gilberto & Bart Howard | ||||
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| Ipanema & the 60's | ||||
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The Bossa Nova craze in the USA was eventually eclipsed by the Beatles, and other rock anthems which still reverberate today as we cross into the Age of Aquarius - first brought to popular consciousness during the 60's. The musical careers of the originators are among the most acclaimed of musicians, as many have seen their songs become classics and living standards that are restated by each new generation who play music. How much was the zeitgeist or spirit of the times, no one can say. The parallel between the stirring of cultural and musical revolutions of Rio Sul and San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury/ Summer of Love 1967 have seldom been made, as the concept of a global mind shift has only of late reentered the conscious conversation as the planet teeters on the brink of great and unknowable devastation. Still, the artistic stew of Ipanema in the late 50's and early 60's deserves a greater exploration for its international relevance. In the late 60's "Tropicalismo" music embodied bossa nova as well an ability to combine foreign pop music with Brazilian music. This Brazilian music with a world sensibility arose in the late 1960s from a melange of bossa nova, rock and roll, Bahia folk music, African music and Portuguese fado. Tropicalism has parallels to today's multiculturalism, World Music and forging a new global society based on peace and mutual respect.
The smooth guitar
jazz samba has continued to survive and never stopped thriving
in the Zona Sul of Rio de Janeiro and among versatile jazz
musicians everywhere. |
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| The large Brazilian immigrant populations in New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and London support much Brazilian music, but no where is there a higher percentage of local support than the spiritual home of the 60's, the San Francisco Bay Area | ||||
| SF Bay Area Bossa Nova for Brazil | ||||
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| Less bossa nova than modern jazz, but the great Flora Purim has to be included in any overview of jazz from Brazi, along with husband Airto Moreira | ||||
| Singer Claudia Villela A Carioca who now lives in SF Bay Area | ||||
| Best bet is | ||||
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| Or our guide to Brazil on the SF Bay | ||||
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