A very rough translation of bossa nova is "new beat".
Re: Astrud is gone...
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 6:48 am
by donn
Bossa has a number of meanings, mostly having to do with bumps of various kinds. Traces back to the same French word as English "boss" with that meaning. In the present application, the likely meaning I get from the dictionary is (in Brazilian informal usage) something like talent that would make you stick out.
I don't know if she came up with that style own her own, but she sure owned it. No vibrato, no screaming, a super chill approach that fit right in with bossa nova.
Re: Astrud is gone...
Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2023 6:55 am
by bloke
Back when people dressed up after work, had cocktail parties, and spoke without yelling, it fit right in.
(I liked it back when we had civilization.)
Re: Astrud is gone...
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 4:15 am
by JESimmons
The story was that Joao Gilberto developed the Bossa Nova rhythm on his guitar (the bumps)while watching the hips of the women walking in his rural home town.
Re: Astrud is gone...
Posted: Fri Jun 09, 2023 1:26 pm
by LibraryMark
bloke wrote: ↑Tue Jun 06, 2023 10:07 pm
amazing talent.
I worked on some of the (easier) pieces in this genre as a teenager.
She chewed up and spit out the most complex of them.
Astrud's voice is the perfect amalgamation of the two most popular jazz movements of the early 1960's: bossa nova and cool jazz. What is little known is that she was the only person in the recording studio who spoke both Portuguese and English, so she was the only one who could give the proper inflection to the lyrics. When Stan Getz and the rest of the ensemble discussed with her husband, João Gilberto, the possibility of adding English lyrics, Astrud recorded a demo, being the only person in the studio who knew English well enough to sing it. It was so well received it became the hit we all know and appreciate.
