He & Jobim started it all 60 years ago this year, w/ this record.
[video:youtube]
Its still my favorite Bossa Nova song. So many great versions out there.
But that record started it all rolling in 1959.
Imagine that sound in 1959.
Gilberto actually invented Bossa Nova playing guitar in his bathroom in 1955.
He wanted to dispense w/ the loud percussion & horn noise of samba &
go back to beautiful melodies & gentle rhythms.
Bim Bom is the first Bossa Nova song he wrote. His father thought he was mentally ill
and had him committed to an asylum.
If I were a music fan from outer space in 1959, listening to all the noise
& my antenna picked up Chega de Saudade. Id pilot my space ship
directly to Rio & bypass the USA completely. That graceful orchestration
w/ his guitar playing tapped into the music of the cosmos for me.
Then there was his laconic voice.
What Gilberto invented is no small thing.
Rock, Pop and Classical have changed many times. Bossa Nova has not changed at all.
Yet it is still young & fresh after sixty years.
[video:youtube]
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