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Bossa nova or “new wave“ Brazilian music grew out of Afro-Brazilian samba blended with jazz and folkloric music, and though often viewed in Brazil at that time as a music of the elite, it would travel far beyond Brazil to become part of the history of what we often think of as American jazz. Spearheaded by Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, and Brazilian musicians Airto Moeira and his wife, Flora Purim, as well as Antônio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto, bossa nova would fuse with música popular brasileira (Brazilian pop music) and American jazz to create a fusion which would leave an indelible imprint on the global music scene.
A few days ago, I had a long conversation with my friend Paulo, who is an elder Afro-Brazilian priest of Candomblé, the largest African-diasporic religious tradition in the New World, with millions of devotees. He was born and raised in Salvador, Bahia, and since I knew I was going to be writing about Brazilian jazz this week, I wanted to get his take on the music that influenced him when he was growing up back home. I had just finished reading several articles and books about the military regime in Brazil and the artists who resisted it, and I wanted to know what life was like for Paulo during those times. Brazilians are currently faced with a president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is determined to out-trump Trump in his terrible COVID-19 response.
Paulo said very somberly, “During those times, we were afraid. People were being arrested. Others ‘disappeared,’ never to be heard from again. Racism was rampant. My mother did not want my father to talk about politics.”
I played him the first Brazilian jazz tune that I remembered hearing many decades ago, “Desafinado,” by saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd, composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim and released in 1962. “Desafinado” loosely translates to “out of tune.”
Paulo laughed, and said that at first bossa nova was associated with wealthy white Brazilians, and of course they would be “out of tune.”
Here’s the original version, performed by João Gilberto, with Portuguese lyrics by Newton Mendonça. Later, English lyrics written by Jon Hendricks would spark vocal versions by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, and other song stylists.
Paulo added, “Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso were charged with being subversive, arrested and kicked out of the country. The musicians in Bahia at that time, along with college students, were all involved in the Tropicália movement, similar to the way students in the U.S were engaged a few years later in the anti-war movement, but with far more disastrous results.” He pointed out that Brazilian musicians used subtly worded lyrics to throw shade at the military government, but had to be very careful about what they said, because they risked exile—or death.
He played this song by Elis Regina, who is one of my favorite Brazilian jazz/bossa nova singers. I don’t speak Portuguese, so I just enjoy listening to the music. In all these years, I had no clue that this song was an attack on the rich, and a plea to pay attention to the plight of the black poor in the favelas.
Paulo commented and translated as we listened.
What sounds simply like an uptempo and jazzy bright vocal display tells a very different story when you understand the lyrics, which are about a poor boy. The son of a single mother, he has to go out each day to sell oranges in the street. If he doesn’t sell them, his mother will beat him. He begs a wealthy white man to make a purchase, addressing him as “Doctor” since, according to Paulo, poor blacks always had to use honorifics when speaking to elite whites.
I had just finished reading Brutality Garden: Tropicália and the Emergence of a Brazilian Counterculture, by Christopher Dunn and shared some passages with Paulo. It is an excellent introduction to the movement.
In the late 1960s, Brazilian artists forged a watershed cultural movement known as Tropicalia. Music inspired by that movement is today enjoying considerable attention at home and abroad. Few new listeners, however, make the connection between this music and the circumstances surrounding its creation, the most violent and repressive days of the military regime that governed Brazil from 1964 to 1985. With key manifestations in theater, cinema, visual arts, literature, and especially popular music, Tropicalia dynamically articulated the conflicts and aspirations of a generation of young, urban Brazilians.
For a shorter read, check out “God Is on the Loose! How the Tropicália Movement Provided Hope During Brazil’s Darkest Years,” over at Pitchfork.
That long conversation with Paulo opened the door to more Brazilian music with African roots for me to explore; he kept mentioning songs and Afro-Brazilian artists I was completely unfamiliar with. I now have a lot more listening to do. Muito obrigado, Paulo.
Though “Desafinado” may have been my most memorable intro to bossa nova, it was the soft vocal of Astrud Gilberto, singing “The Girl From Ipanema” combined with the music of Getz, João Gilberto, and Jobim which sparked a bossa nova craze in the states.
Martin Chilton described her impact just this past March, in “Why Astrud Gilberto Is So Much More Than ‘The Girl From Ipanema.’”
The song ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ sold nearly five million copies worldwide, helped introduce bossa nova to the world beyond Brazil and made a star of 24-year-old singer Astrud Gilberto when it was released as a single by Verve Records in May 1964. Gilberto, who was born on 29 March 1940, was not actually from Ipanema. She was born in Salvador, Bahia, in north-eastern Brazil, the daughter of Evangelina, a Brazilian, and Fritz, an immigrant professor. They named their daughter Astrud, after a goddess from Fritz’s native Germany. Fritz Weinert taught languages, and Astrud grew up to be fluent in Japanese, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and English.
“In my mid-teens I was part of a gang of youngsters who were involved with music,” she recalled in 1981. “Through them, I met João Gilberto, who invented the concept of bossa nova. We were married, and I sang at home with João and did a couple of college concerts with him as a special guest.”
Gilberto’s life changed forever in March 1963 when she accompanied João to A&R Studios in Manhattan while he recorded the album Getz/Gilberto with the renowned jazz saxophonist Stan Getz. They were about to create one of the biggest-selling jazz albums of all time, a record that turned millions of people on to jazz and the rhythms of Brazil. Getz/Gilberto stayed in the album charts for 96 weeks and, in 1965, won Grammy awards for Album Of The Year, Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual Or Group and Best Engineered Recording – Non-Classical. ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ also won Record Of The Year.
Have a listen—do you know the words?
Though not from Bahia, or Rio, or São Paulo, another key Brazilian musician who had an impact on American jazz was percussionist Airto Moreira. As his website explains, Moreira was something of a child prodigy.
Airto Moreira was born in 1941 in the small village of Itaiopolis – south Brazil, and was raised in Curitiba. Even before he could walk he would start shaking and banging on the floor each time the radio played a hot song. This worried his mother, but his grandmother recognized his potential and encouraged him to express himself. By the time he was six years old he had won several music contests singing and playing percussion. The city gave him his own radio program every Saturday afternoon. At thirteen he played his first paid engagement and became a professional musician. After that he worked in local bands playing percussion, drums and singing. At the age of sixteen he moved to São Paulo and soon was performing regularly in night clubs, shows and television, as well as touring with prominent artists.
In 1965 he met singer, Flora Purim in Rio de Janeiro. Flora moved to the USA in 1967 and Airto followed her shortly after. When in New York, Airto began playing with jazz musicians. It was bassist, Walter Booker that introduced Airto to the greats – Cannonball Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Lee Morgan, Paul Desmond and Joe Zawinul, to name a few. Zawinul recommended Airto to Miles Davis for the “Bitches Brew” recording session in 1970… the iconic album that changed the face of jazz. Davis then invited Airto to join his group, which included such jazz icons as Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, Chick Corea and later John McLaughlin and Keith Jarrett. He remained with Miles for two years and appears on such releases as “Live/Evil”, “Live at the Fillmore”, “On the Corner”, “The Isle of Wight” and later releases including the “Fillmore Sessions”.
Following his stint with Miles, Airto was invited to form the original Weather Report, a group with Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Miroslav Vitous and Alphonse Mouzon with whom he recorded “The Weather Report”. Soon after, he joined Chick Corea’s original “Return to Forever” band with Flora Purim, Joe Farrell and Stanley Clarke and they recorded the albums, “Return to Forever” and “Light as a Feather”, touring extensively around the world.
This brief bio leaves out quite a bit, so I was elated to discover this absorbing interview with him, conducted by drummer and author Dom Famularo, for The Sessions. Not only do we learn about his rural upbringing—where he went out to shine shoes to earn money, and rode on horseback for hours to get to gigs playing for elite plantation events, which started at 11 PM and didn’t end till sunrise—we follow him to “the big city” where he was semi-homeless. The story of his eventual arrival in the U.S, not speaking a word of English, which he learned from Sesame Street, was fascinating.
Moreira also speaks of the mentorship he received from alto saxophonist and bandleader Cannonball Adderley, his friendship with bassist Walter Booker, and his eventual chance to get to play with trumpeter Miles Davis.
Here’s Moreira playing live with Cannonball and Booker in 1970, a performance found on the 1972 album The Happy People. The tune “Maria Tres Filhos” was written by one of Brazil’s most beloved musicians, Milton Nascimento.
Moreira and his wife, Flora Purim, truly make beautiful music together. Here they are live in 1985, at Paul Masson Vineyards in Madera, California.
Purim, as a jazz vocalist, is in a class by herself, as her website bio is happy to note (in English that’s rather awkwardly translated from Portuguese).
Her once-in-a-generation six-octave voice has earned her two Grammy nominations for Best Female Jazz Performance and Downbeat magazines Best Female Singer accolade on four occasions. Her musical partners have included Gil Evans, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie and Airto Moreira, with whom she has collaborated on over 30 albums since moving with him from her native Rio to New York in 1967.
Her musical genius was inbred thanks to a Russian émigré father who played violin and a mother who was a talented pianist in her own right. Before leaving Brazil to escape the repressive military regime of the time, she had mastered piano and guitar and liberated an exhilarating vocal talent. In New York, she and Airto became central to the period of musical expression and creativity, which produced the first commercially successful Electric Jazz groups of the 70s. Blue Note artist Duke Pearson was the first American musician to invite Flora to sing alongside him on stage and on record. She then toured with Gil Evans about whom she says, this guy has changed my life. He gave us a lot of support to do the craziest stuff. This was the beginning for me. Her reputation as an outstanding performer gained her work with Chick Corea and Stan Getz as part of the New Jazz movement that also contained the nurturing influence of sax man Cannonball Adderley. Shortly after, Flora started in earnest to re-educate discriminating musical minds, after linking up with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Joe Farrell to form “Return To Forever” in late 1971.
Two classic albums resulted – “Return to Forever” and “Light as a Feather” – nodal points in the development of fusion jazz. When Chick decided to drive further still down the electric road, Flora and Airto chose their own path. Airto by this time had already begun to create his own legend by playing with Miles Davis in 1970, before helping to found the jazz wellspring that was “Weather Report”. Her first solo album in the US, Butterfly Dreams was released in 1973, which put her right away to the Top Five Jazz Singers on the Downbeat Magazine Fame Jazz Poll.
Take a listen to Purim’s unique vocals on “Butterfly Dreams,” from the album of the same name.
It would be impossible to discuss Brazilian jazz fusion here in the U.S. without featuring the seminal collaboration of Wayne Shorter and Milton Nascimento on Shorter’s album Native Dancer.
Again, Nascimento is a cultural icon in Brazil. A living legend, as Quincy Jones’ Qwest TV noted in 2018.
The singer recorded his first album, Travessia, with the innovative Carioca group Tamba Trio in 1967. It went on to make a lasting impression. Edu Lobo drew particular influence from it, and it grew in parallel with the Tropicalism of the Bahians Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso. In this sense, Milton helped define Brazilian Popular Music (MPB) by summoning not only urban aesthetics (like samba and bossa nova), but by also incorporating North-Eastern countryside and Amazonian influences, whilst constantly engaging in dialogue with contemporary poets like Fernando Brant, his faithful lyricist. In 1968, Eumir Deodato’s arrangements on the album Courage, recorded in the United States, pushed his generation’s ambitions a little further (all these artists were born in the early 1940s). Even within the Clube da Esquina, there was intense competition, as evidenced by the two albums (in 1972 and 1978) that bear the group’s name. All this was happening in the midst of a military dictatorship. Milton was never forced into exile, but he regularly faced censorship and Fernando Brant’s texts were often political, even if the messages were conveyed through metaphors to divert attention.
The brilliant progression of the first albums, up to Milagre dos Peixes in 1973, inevitably drew the attention of Wayne Shorter’s sharp ear. The saxophonist collaborated with Milton on a cult album, Native Dancer (1974), which combined jazz rock and MPB, piano parts by Wagner Tiso and Herbie Hancock, along with challenging and beautiful poetry. Notably on compositions such as “Ponta de Areia,” which would later inspire many versions including reprisals by Earth, Wind & Fire and Esperanza Spalding. His associations with jazz include collaborations with Sarah Vaughan, Pat Metheny, The Manhattan Transfer and, in France, with the Belmondo brothers. There was also interest from the world of pop music, from Paul Simon, Sting and Peter Gabriel amongst others. With the 1980s marking the end of the dictatorship (his song “Coração de Estudante” became a democratic anthem in 1984), Milton Nascimento embraced ecological causes, particularly on the album Txai (1990), which sought to defend the Amazon.
The Brazilian Composers Union (UBC) named 2019 ”The Year of Milton Nascimento.” It always surprises me that he is so acclaimed both in Brazil and in other parts of the world, yet he is not better known here in the states. Perhaps it’s a matter of a lack of exposure: When I was the program director of WPFW-FM Pacifica radio in Washington, D.C., we played so much Nascimento, the local record store had to create a special section for his music.
At the 1990 Montreal Jazz Festival, Shorter joined Nascimento for an electrifying performance of some of the material from Native Dancer. This is “Tarde.”
The energy between Shorter and Nascimento is duplicated in the collaborations between Brazilian jazz pianist and guitarist Egberto Gismonti and percussionist, vocalist and berimbau player Nana Vasconcelos; enjoy this duet, performed at the Kaiser Bock Winter Festival in 1996. It’s a must watch.
All I can say is “that was intense!”
I have barely scratched the surface of the wealth of incredible musicians and music from Brazil, and the nation’s intersections with American jazz. Feel free to join me in comments with your favorite Brazilian artists and music.
With so many of us staying home and socially distanced during this COVID-19 pandemic, I will continue to focus on music this month, for a change of pace from the mounting pain and shared suffering we are all experiencing. So join me next Sunday for more music history! I’m not telling you what’s on the playlist for next week, but know that it won’t be jazz!
