50 Years of the Beat: Bossa Nova

 

This summer, relish the sound "of love, the smile, and the flower." 50 Years of the Beat, a two hour radio documentary, reveals the hidden history of Bossa Nova, the music to burst out of Rio de Janeiro in the late 50s and early 60s.

WBGO investigates the musicians who popularized the art form worldwide: João Gilberto, Vinícius de Moraes, and Antônio Carlos Jobim.  WBGO’s host and producer Simon Rentner, who visited Brazil last January, interviewed Brazil’s top musicians, producers, and scholars including Sergio Mendes, Joyce, Cesar Camargo Mariano, Benjamim Taubkin, Miúcha, Paulo Jobim, Georgiana de Moraes, and Luís Carlos Miéle. 

The documentary features exclusive interviews with founders Roberto Menescal and Carlos Lyra, plus analysis from the idiom’s leading scholar Ruy Castro.  The documentary showcases rare recordings from some of the music’s forgotten heroes like Sylvinha Telles, Johnny Alf, and Edison Machado, plus an exclusive recording of João Gilberto from the late ‘50s.

Additional music featured: Radamés Gnatalli, Luizinho Eça, Tenario Jr., Stan Getz, Milton Banana, Orlando Silva, Maestro Lindolfu Gaya, Herbie Mann, Os Cariocas, Astrud Gilberto, Charlie Byrd, Baden Powell, Dick Farney, Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Luís Carlos Vinhas, Cid Grey, Ary Barroso, Ronaldo Boscoli, Wanda Sa, Edu Lobo, Nara Leão, Marcos Valle, Jorge Ben Jr., Leny Andrade, Tamba Trio, Sambalanco Trio, Sambrasa Trio, Bossa Tres, Wilson Simonal, Elis Regina, and many others.

• Hour One
• Hour Two
• Click here for WBGO’s NPR feature on bossa nova’s top tunes.
• Click here to learn more about João Gilberto’s original bossa nova recordings.

 

We had a chance to catch up with Simon to talk about his personal musical pilgrimage to Brazil and how the documentary came together.

WBGO: How did you get into this music?

Simon: I discovered Bossa Nova through the American lens - the Getz/Gilberto record. Getz got primary billing and the most money for that album. Astrud [Gilberto] got something like $150 and [Stan] Getz bought a mansion! It not only helped introduce but also popularize Bossa Nova to America and the world. That record was incredible. You listened to it and you fell in love [laughs]. You kind of learn how to romanticize love when listening to that music. I really got into that record around the end of high school. The same time that I was romanticizing love a great deal.

WBGO: That's really intriguing. What were some influences in getting you into this music?

Simon: It stems back to my dad. He is a professional musician/drummer and played in a Dixie land band and is a contemporary choral singer. Despite that, he always seemed to show the most expression when fooling around with the Bossa Nova beat (eventhough he couldn't do it very well) when he got out the kit at home.

WBGO: And what about the music spoke to you?

Simon: I'm not a musicologist so I can't exactly explain what's happening musically but there but samba or bossa nova seems to be a cousin of American funk or swing. It's exotic and foreign in a way but at the same time it feels very familiar...this feeling of grooving I think is the same feeling of "swing" that Brazilians love to talk about.

WBGO: Wow. So Brazilians love jazz? What do they think of the music?

Simon: Brazilians are obsessed with jazz! They started many [jazz] fan clubs like the Stan Kenton Progressive Club, Glenn Miller Fan Club and, most importanty, the (Frank) Sinatra- (Dick) Farney Fan club, and they would mimic all kinds of jazz players.

WBGO: So for you, when did it go from romanticizing about the music to actual work?

Simon: I was doing a lot of music documentaries for Afropop Worldwide - music from Colombia, Venezuela, and Sierra Leone, and then of course with jazz for other shows. I especially love learning about music from the Americas -- you always see this common theme, where the African Diaspora mixes and manifests into very distinct forms of music - like jazz, Colombian cumbia, or Venezulen gaita music. Because samba has some similarities with jazz in terms of its sophistication and evolution it has always been my dream to do a bossa nova documentary. I hate to admit it, but I defintely have a personal bias toward the feel and groove of Brazilian music. And then the 50th anniversary came - which was a great pitching point, and just seemed like an opportune time to do something.

WBGO: Cool. So now...where do you start?

Simon: I talked to some editors of different public radio shows, and I was interviewing for [a position at] WBGO, and Thurston [Briscoe, WBGO's Program Director] wanted me to do it for WBGO. I started laying the groundwork by doing some research beforehand but couldn't do much because I was making this documentary on John Adams the president and that was leading up toward my departure date. But I suppose a big reason for doing this project was to have a good excuse to celebrate my 30th birthday in Brazil. So I timed it around Carnival. It all just sort of worked out.

WBGO: What was your experience like?

Simon: They were incredibly welcoming and I was able to get interviews with these musicians. There is one incredible scholar and writer in Brazil - Ruy Castro. He wrote the definitive Bossa Nova book that has been translated into 200 languages -- Bossa Nova: The Story of the Brazilian Music that Seduced the World. I had to write his publisher and his wife a letter, and chase him around Rio for a few days, but I was able to get the interview, which was wonderful for the project. Being on the ground was a revelation because you see what Brazilian music is to their culture. They named an airport after Jobim! I don't know any musician, let alone a composer that has an airport in his name [laughs]. Buildings, streets, squares, plazas, are named after musicians. You see its musical culture subsidized in Brazil like no other culture that I've ever seen. Plus all the jamming in the streets!

WBGO: Wow, that's amazing. So, how did you prep for the trip? How did you know who would be in town, and all of those kinds of logistics? Did you know from the beginning who you'd interview?

Simon: Luckily, there's enough people that can tell this story that I wasn't so concerned with that. To set the record straight, most of the Brazilian's that I talked to do not like the Getz album - they particularly despise the Charlie Byrd recording (which sold over a million copies in the US). The American versions are not received well. They get some respect if there is a Brazilian rhythm section - in Frank Sinatra's case. I thought it was really important to tell that side of the story. Then there was this insane musical area on Bottle's Corner/Bottle's Lane, which was like the 52nd Street of Brazil in the early 60s, where you had three clubs on one street. Some of the greatest Brazilian musicians of all time emerged from there like Jorge Ben, Elis Regina, Sergio Mendes and more forgotten people like Tenario Jr., and Edison Machado.

WBGO: So how do Brazilian's feel about the whole notion of a 50th anniversary?

Simon: They are very proud of the 50th anniversary. They know the bossa nova story almost too well.