Bossa nova () is a relaxed style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is mainly characterized by a calm syncopated rhythm with chords and fingerstyle mimicking the beat of a samba groove, as if it were a simplification and stylization on the guitar of the rhythm produced by a samba school band. Another defining characteristic of the style is the use of unconventional chords in some cases with complex progressions and "ambiguous" harmonies. A common misconception is that these complex chords and harmonies were derived from jazz, but samba guitar players have been using similar arrangement structures since the early 1920s, indicating a case of parallel evolution of styles rather than a simple transference from jazz to bossa nova. Nevertheless, bossa nova was influenced by jazz, both in the harmonies used and also by the instrumentation of songs, and today many bossa nova songs are considered jazz standards. The popularity of bossa nova has helped to renew samba and contributed to the modernization of Brazilian music in general.
One of the major innovations of bossa nova was the way to synthesize the rhythm of samba on the classical guitar. According to musicologist Gilberto Mendes, the bossa nova was one of the "three rhythmic phases of samba", in which the "bossa beat" had been extracted by João Gilberto from the traditional samba. The synthesis performed by Gilberto's guitar was a reduction of the "batucada" of samba, a stylization produced from one of the percussion instruments: the thumb stylized a surdo; the index, middle and ring fingers phrased like a tamborim. In line with this thesis, musicians such as Baden Powell, Roberto Menescal, and Ronaldo Bôscoli also understand the bossa nova beat as being extracted from the tamborim play in the bateria.
Etymology
In Brazil, the word is old-fashioned slang for something done with particular charm, natural flair or innate ability. As early as 1932, Noel Rosa used the word in a samba:
(Samba, readiness and other are our things, are things from us.)
The phrase , translated literally, means "new trend" or "new wave" in Portuguese. The exact origin of the term remained unclear for many decades, according to some authors. Within the artistic beach culture of the late 1950s in Rio de Janeiro, the term was used to refer to any new "trend" or "fashionable wave". In his book Bossa Nova, Brazilian author Ruy Castro asserts that was already in use in the 1950s by musicians as a word to characterize someone's knack for playing or singing idiosyncratically.
Castro claims that the term might have first been used in public for a concert given in 1957 by the ('Hebrew University Group of Brazil'). The authorship of the term is attributed to the young journalist Moyses Fuks, who was promoting the event. That group consisted of Sylvia Telles, Carlos Lyra, Nara Leão, Luiz Eça, Roberto Menescal, and others. Mr Fuks's description, fully supported by most of the bossa nova members, simply read ("Today. Sylvia Telles and a 'Bossa Nova' group"), since Sylvia Telles was the most famous musician in the group at that time.
In 1959, Nara Leão also participated in more than one embryonic display of bossa nova. These include the 1st Festival de Samba Session, conducted by the student union of . This session was chaired by Carlos Diegues (later a prominent Cinema Novo film director), a law student whom Leão ultimately married.
History The nightclubs of (Alley of the Bottles), a small dead-end alley in Copacabana, is considered a historical cradle of bossa nova.
In 1959, the soundtrack to the film Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) was released, which included the future Manhã de Carnaval, "The Morning of the Carnival". The style emerged at the time when samba-canção was the dominant rhythm in the Brazilian music scene. Its first appearance was on the album Canção do Amor Demais, in which the singer Elizeth Cardoso recorded two compositions by the duo Antônio Carlos "Tom" Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, "Outra Vez" and "Chega de Saudade", which were accompanied by João Gilberto's guitar. It was the first time that the Bahian musician presented the beat of his guitar that would become characteristic of the style. By accompanying Cardoso's voice, Gilberto innovated in the way of pacing the rhythm, accentuating the weak times, to carry out a synthesis of the beat of samba to guitar.
In 1959, João Gilberto's bossa album was released, containing the tracks "Chega de Saudade", "Bim Bom" and "Desafinado" which entered the jazz repertory. Considered the landmark of the birth of bossa nova, it also featured Gilberto's innovative way of singing samba, which was inspired by Dorival Caymmi. With the LP Chega de Saudade, released in 1959, Gilberto consolidated the bossa nova as a new style of playing samba. His innovative way of playing and singing samba, combined with the harmonies of Tom Jobim and the lyrics of Vinicius de Moraes, found immediate resonance among musicians who were looking for new approaches to samba in Rio de Janeiro, many of whom were influenced by American jazz.
On 21 November 1962, the Consulate-General of Brazil presented Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall."It's 20 years ago bossa nova was released to the world at Carnegie Hall in New York" by Rénato Sergio, Manchete magazine, 1982 (in Portuguese) In the same year, Quincy Jones released the album Big Band Bossa Nova after visiting Rio de Janeiro and hearing about the success of bossa nova.
In 1964, João Gilberto, Stan Getz and Tom Jobim released the Grammy Awards-winning album Getz/Gilberto. Bossa Nova emerged as an artistic movement around Gilberto and other professional artists such as Jobim, Moraes and Baden Powell, among others, which attracted young amateur musicians from the South Zone of Rio – such as Marcos Valle, Carlos Lyra, Roberto Menescal, Ronaldo Bôscoli and Nara Leão and Bahian Astrud Gilberto.
Jorge Ben wrote "Mas que nada" in 1963, and Sérgio Mendes & Brazil 66 gained a bossa rock hit with the song in 1966. It was inducted into the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame, The song Summer Samba by Marcos Valle was first popularized by the Walter Wanderley Trio in 1966 – the album Rain Forest on which it was issued reached platinum status in 1970 (retrieved 15 February 2007)Chusid, Irwin. – in 1966, Wanderley's version was the biggest seller in the U.S., reaching #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Easy Listening chart. The composition is still a favourite on Adult Standards radio stations. Following the success of Waters of March by Tom Jobim in the 1970s, the song was adapted for use in a series of advertisements for Coca-Cola in the 1980s. These ended with the then current slogan "Coke Is It".
Frank Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim recorded Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim in 1967. The tracks were arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman, accompanied by a studio orchestra. Along with Jobim's original compositions. In the 1960s and 1970s, US jazz artists such as Stan Getz, Hank Mobley, Dave Brubeck, Zoot Sims, Paul Winter, and Quincy Jones recorded bossa jazz albums.
Bossa nova continues to influence popular music around the world, from the 1960s to today. An example is the song "Break On Through (To the Other Side)" by American rock band The Doors, especially the drum beat. Drummer John Densmore has stated that he was very influenced by the sounds of Brazil when coming up with the drum part for the song. In the mid-1980s, New Bossa emerged in Europe, in the work of Nigerian singer Sade Adu and in groups such as Matt Bianco and Style Council.
In 21st century, the song "Billie Bossa Nova" was released by Billie Eilish in 2021, the Icelandic jazz pop singer Laufey released her hit song "From the Start" in 2023, with its bossa nova–infused rhythm. This resurgence continued in 2025 through the successes of BMF by SZA and So Easy (To Fall in Love) by Olivia Dean.
Japanese Bossa Nova Outside of Brazil, Japan is arguably the country with the highest popularity of bossa nova. Bossa nova was introduced to Japan in the early 1960s, similar to the United States, and gained many fans along with the rise of jazz.Masahiro Goto, Bossa Nova Vocalist, "A New Wave of Music Born in Rio, Brazil, Healing the World (Jazz Vocal Collection 07", July 26, 2016, Sarai (Japan) Later, the release of Sadao Watanabe's 1967 album "Jazz & Bossa" after his return from the United States ignited a bossa nova boom in Japan.Bringing warmth and relaxation: Bossa Nova in winter – A conversation, Arso Publishing The success of Brazilian artists in Japan, such as Sonia Rosa, Vilma de Oliveira and Lisa Ono also boosted its popularity. Separately, with the café boom that began around 1990, bossa nova was often featured alongside jazz as music played in cafés. As a result, older bossa nova recordings are frequently reissued on CD in Japan, and Brazil also releases CDs for export with the Japanese and European markets in mind, making it easier to obtain bossa nova recordings in Japan than in Brazil itself.
Brazilian music critic Mamoru Oshima has described the rise and fall of bossa nova by saying, "Bossa nova was born in Rio, grew up in São Paulo, died in Bahia, and was reborn in Japan."Quoted here: A History of Japan-Brazil Music Exchange That No One Has Written About, Sergio Augusto, May 19, 2022, Brazil Daily Carlos Lyra, an early Brazilian bossa nova artist, said of the popularity of bossa nova in Japan, "I think the reason why bossa nova is most loved in Japan is because of the people's educational background. In Brazil there is a huge gap between rich and poor, but that is not the case in Japan, there is a large middle class, and generally people are highly educated and cultured. Bossa nova was originally music made for such middle-class listeners, so I think it is a perfect fit for the Japanese taste."Press conference for "This Is Bossa Nova" featuring bossa nova masters Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal, 3 August 2005, Cinema Journal
Instruments Classical guitar
Bossa nova is most commonly performed on the nylon-string classical guitar, played with the fingers rather than with a pick. Its purest form could be considered unaccompanied guitar with vocals, as created, pioneered, and exemplified by João Gilberto. Even in larger, jazz-influenced ensemble arrangements, a guitar is typically present to provide the foundational rhythm. Gilberto basically took one of the several rhythmic layers from a samba ensemble, specifically the tamborim, and applied it to the picking hand. According to Brazilian musician Paulo Bittencourt, João Gilberto, known for his eccentricity and obsessed by the idea of finding a new way of playing the guitar, sometimes locked himself in the bathroom, where he played one and the same chord for many hours in a row.
Drums and percussion As in samba, the surdo plays an ostinato figure on the downbeat of beat one, the "ah" of beat one, the downbeat of beat two and the "ah" of beat two. The clave pattern sounds very similar to the two-three or three-two son clave of Cuban styles such as mambo but is dissimilar in that the "two" side of the clave is pushed by an eighth note. Also important in the percussion section for bossa nova is the cabasa, which plays a steady sixteenth-note pattern. These parts are easily adaptable to the drum set, which makes bossa nova a rather popular Brazilian style for drummers.
Structure Certain other instrumentations and vocals are also part of the structure of bossa nova. These include:
Bossa nova and samba