Browse content similar to The Girl from Ipanema: Brazil, Bossa Nova and the Beach. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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SONG: The Girl From Ipanema | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:00:11 | 0:00:14 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking and | 0:00:14 | 0:00:18 | |
# When she passes each one she passes goes | 0:00:18 | 0:00:22 | |
# "Ah..." | 0:00:22 | 0:00:24 | |
# When she walks, she's like a samba | 0:00:25 | 0:00:28 | |
# That swings so cool and sways so gently that | 0:00:28 | 0:00:32 | |
# When she passes, each one she passes goes | 0:00:32 | 0:00:36 | |
# "Ah..." # | 0:00:36 | 0:00:39 | |
The Girl From Ipanema. Nothing says Rio de Janeiro quite like it. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:44 | |
Musical legends from Frank Sinatra to Amy Winehouse | 0:00:44 | 0:00:47 | |
cut their own versions of the most famous piece of bossa nova | 0:00:47 | 0:00:50 | |
ever written. And when it was first a hit back in 1964, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
those three sublime minutes crystallised a vision of Brazil | 0:00:54 | 0:00:58 | |
in the eyes of the rest of the world that endures to this day. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:02 | |
# But each day when she walks to the sea | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
# She looks straight ahead not at he... # | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
So I've come here to Rio to explore the culture and the people | 0:01:14 | 0:01:18 | |
behind the hit song. | 0:01:18 | 0:01:21 | |
It's a journey into a most extraordinary period | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
in Brazil's history when utopian Modernism, | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
African rhythms and romantic poetry were channelled by a generation | 0:01:26 | 0:01:31 | |
of Rio natives - Cariocas - to create bossa nova, | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
Brazil's first and last truly international art form. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:01:41 | 0:01:44 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking and | 0:01:44 | 0:01:48 | |
# When she passes each one she passes goes | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
# "Ah..." | 0:01:52 | 0:01:55 | |
Bossa nova is the most beautiful music ever | 0:01:55 | 0:01:57 | |
because it's sophisticated and also very simple. | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
We were fighting for a cause, we had the sensation, we were fighting for, | 0:02:00 | 0:02:05 | |
our cause was to divulge, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
to promote this wonderful music that will save Brazil. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:13 | |
Bossa's a music defined by its sophistication, but sadly, | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
now more often heard in a lift than on the radio. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
But I've always loved bossa. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:23 | |
My father was born here in Rio so I grew up listening to it, | 0:02:23 | 0:02:26 | |
and I've travelled here to Brazil many times to see and hear it | 0:02:26 | 0:02:29 | |
for myself. There is so much more to it than its Muzak stereotype, | 0:02:29 | 0:02:34 | |
and it means so much to Brazilians of all ages. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
So join me as I retrace the steps of the girl from Ipanema | 0:02:37 | 0:02:41 | |
to a golden age of Brazilian music | 0:02:41 | 0:02:43 | |
and the sun, sea and samba that started it all. | 0:02:43 | 0:02:47 | |
# And when she passes she smiles | 0:02:47 | 0:02:50 | |
# But she doesn't see | 0:02:50 | 0:02:53 | |
# She just doesn't see... # | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
Any story about Brazilian music has to start with samba. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
In fact, here in Brazil, they say that music is samba | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
and samba is God. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:07 | |
It's the music that tells the story of the Brazilian people, | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
and it also provides the pulsing soundtrack | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
to Rio's famous carnival parades. | 0:03:13 | 0:03:16 | |
UPBEAT MUSIC | 0:03:16 | 0:03:18 | |
Samba is where the soul of Brazil is. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:26 | |
It's the way Brazil breathes, it's the way Brazil walks, | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
it's the heartbeat of Brazil. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:31 | |
Samba is as old as Brazil itself. | 0:03:34 | 0:03:36 | |
Based on rhythms brought to the continent by West African slaves | 0:03:36 | 0:03:40 | |
in the 16th century, it took hold as a truly Brazilian rhythm | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
in the 1930s under the nationalist dictator Getulio Vargas. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:48 | |
He used the carnival parades to promote his policy | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
of racial democracy, | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
unifying the diverse population through song and dance. | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
And carnival still has that effect today. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
So samba means carnival, it means party. | 0:03:59 | 0:04:02 | |
Tell us how people behave when they hear a samba. | 0:04:02 | 0:04:05 | |
Bossa nova feels very calm compared to samba but is there some link? | 0:04:13 | 0:04:17 | |
You can see why the Brazilians love samba. I mean, what's not to like? | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
But all this, the drums and the noise and the singing | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
and all the general madness is a million miles away from the soft, | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
sophisticated tones of bossa nova. | 0:04:39 | 0:04:41 | |
They may have come from the same place, | 0:04:41 | 0:04:43 | |
but bossa nova was a child of its time, and that time was the 1950s. | 0:04:43 | 0:04:48 | |
-REPORTER: -'Yes, it's the most famous beach in the world, | 0:04:53 | 0:04:57 | |
'Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, | 0:04:57 | 0:04:59 | |
'the city where the tango and the samba and the prettiest girls | 0:04:59 | 0:05:02 | |
'in the world come from.' | 0:05:02 | 0:05:04 | |
Bossa nova captured the mood of a special moment in Brazil's history. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
The demise of President Vargas in 1954 | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
called an end to 25 years of strict state control | 0:05:13 | 0:05:16 | |
and gave way to a democratic, outward-looking Brazil | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
with its sights set on becoming a modern First World nation. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:23 | |
It was beautiful. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:26 | |
It was an emerging time for arts, | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
for film, for many things. | 0:05:30 | 0:05:34 | |
It was like a promise | 0:05:34 | 0:05:37 | |
of a new country, new life. | 0:05:37 | 0:05:40 | |
-NEWSREADER: -Brazil's president elect, Juscelino Kubitschek, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
declares putting Brazil on the map will be the biggest operation | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
of his career. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:51 | |
We had this great president in this Kubitschek. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:54 | |
JK was his nickname. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
We used to call the President bossa nova. | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
Yeah, because he was always smiling. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:04 | |
He loves music. | 0:06:04 | 0:06:06 | |
People loved him, he was a democrat. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:08 | |
He started to build cars | 0:06:08 | 0:06:12 | |
and industries. | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
He was a visionary. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:15 | |
"We will build a new capital in four years." | 0:06:15 | 0:06:19 | |
And they did it. | 0:06:19 | 0:06:21 | |
After centuries of colonial rule and hard-line dictatorships, | 0:06:24 | 0:06:28 | |
Kubitschek's promise of 50 years' development in five, | 0:06:28 | 0:06:31 | |
epitomised by the audacity of the brand-new capital, Brasilia, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:35 | |
inspired hope for a new start for Brazil. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
And, as if life couldn't get any better, | 0:06:42 | 0:06:44 | |
the national football team were on top of the world. | 0:06:44 | 0:06:47 | |
1958, miraculously, Brazil won the World Cup in Sweden. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:54 | |
And with a generation with Pele, Garrincha, | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
the greatest football players, | 0:07:00 | 0:07:03 | |
they marvelled the world with it. | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
They were not only playing football, | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
they were artists, they were dancers, they were magicians. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:14 | |
And that, in Brazil, had a strong effect on the Brazilian soul. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:20 | |
"We're the best." | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
And the bossa nova comes as the perfect soundtrack of this period | 0:07:23 | 0:07:28 | |
of Brazilian life - we were happy. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
The soundtrack to this golden era would be written by a generation | 0:07:39 | 0:07:42 | |
of middle-class kids coming of age in the beachfront apartment blocks | 0:07:42 | 0:07:46 | |
of Copacabana and Ipanema. | 0:07:46 | 0:07:48 | |
Guitar-mad Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal, | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
jobbing night-time pianist Tom Jobim, | 0:07:51 | 0:07:54 | |
keen young singer Nara Leao | 0:07:54 | 0:07:56 | |
and awkward troubadour Joao Gilberto | 0:07:56 | 0:07:59 | |
enjoyed a charmed lifestyle and bonded over their desire | 0:07:59 | 0:08:03 | |
for a modern Brazilian sound to call their own. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:09:05 | 0:09:07 | |
The music was that kind of thing, | 0:09:13 | 0:09:16 | |
"Waiter, bring me another glass because that woman just... | 0:09:16 | 0:09:21 | |
"found herself a lover and I'm here suffering with this sentimental..." | 0:09:21 | 0:09:26 | |
All the lyrics were about adultery, you know. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:31 | |
It was horrible. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:09:37 | 0:09:39 | |
Running a mile from their parents' sorrowful samba-canao, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
Rio's hip teens fell in love with American cool jazz. | 0:09:43 | 0:09:47 | |
The West Coast jazz, I loved it. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:50 | |
Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan, Shorty Rogers, | 0:09:50 | 0:09:53 | |
Barney Kessel. | 0:09:53 | 0:09:55 | |
Me and Roberto Menescal used to listen to Barney Kessel | 0:09:55 | 0:09:58 | |
day and night. We were very impressed by that. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:00 | |
The group would meet in the family home of young singer Nara Leao | 0:10:24 | 0:10:28 | |
This intimate environment set the tone | 0:10:28 | 0:10:30 | |
for the style of music they played. | 0:10:30 | 0:10:32 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:10:32 | 0:10:34 | |
Everybody barefoot, | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
drinking whiskey | 0:11:24 | 0:11:26 | |
and smoking a lot. | 0:11:26 | 0:11:29 | |
And everybody... The guitar will circulate | 0:11:29 | 0:11:33 | |
and everyone will show his new songs. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:36 | |
I would be here, you would be there, Menescal there... | 0:11:36 | 0:11:41 | |
and a piano here, guitar... | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
and then I had to play to you my new song. | 0:11:43 | 0:11:47 | |
It was difficult because I have to impress. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:50 | |
To go inside that group, you have to be good, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:53 | |
or they would think that you weren't good. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
But once you were there, everybody would help each other. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
It soon became an ambitious songwriters circle, | 0:12:00 | 0:12:03 | |
and in 1958 came the first song to be dubbed bossa nova, the new beat. | 0:12:03 | 0:12:08 | |
It would also unite on record the future team behind | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
The Girl From Ipanema. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:12 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
The only place to come in Rio to get more info on this seminal song | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
is the record shop-cum-library cum-bossa nova shrine | 0:12:30 | 0:12:35 | |
run by Carlos Alberto Afonso. | 0:12:35 | 0:12:37 | |
The first document of music, of course, | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
phonographic documents of bossa nova history, | 0:12:45 | 0:12:49 | |
one recording from July 10, '58. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:54 | |
The first moment with the bossa nova seed is one recording | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
with Joao Gilberto, the god, number one, | 0:12:58 | 0:13:02 | |
playing and singing and the orchestra | 0:13:02 | 0:13:07 | |
of the second god of bossa nova, | 0:13:07 | 0:13:11 | |
Antonio Carlos Jobim or Tom Jobim. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:14 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
When I heard this song, it was something... | 0:13:43 | 0:13:46 | |
Something happened in my heart and I said, "What is that?" | 0:13:46 | 0:13:50 | |
Because it was so unusual, the way he sings, | 0:13:50 | 0:13:53 | |
the way the beat and the music, everything, you know? | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
I can remember exactly when I heard Joao Gilberto. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:02 | |
I was in a party | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
and I was dating a very beautiful girl. | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
I remember I said, "My God, what is that?" | 0:14:08 | 0:14:11 | |
Even if I had influence of many other kinds of music, | 0:14:11 | 0:14:15 | |
when bossa nova, I heard this, | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
I said, "My God!" I was under the impact. | 0:14:17 | 0:14:20 | |
Something of an outsider, | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
Joao Gilberto was from the northern state of Bahia | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
and was steeped in that region's African samba rhythms. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
This deep knowledge was always welcome at the jam sessions in Rio, | 0:14:38 | 0:14:42 | |
even if Joao himself was a bit of a loner. | 0:14:42 | 0:14:44 | |
But what really marked out the man who would first perform | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
The Girl From Ipanema was his new twist on the samba rhythm, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
which became known as the bossa beat. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:55 | |
He listened to the samba, played by the samba schools, | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
500 percussionists walking in procession | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
and playing that groove... | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
SHE MIMICS DRUMBEAT | 0:15:03 | 0:15:06 | |
Really kind of explosive sounds. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:08 | |
Irresistible sound. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:10 | |
He just heard that and just took | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
the essential element of it | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
and created this groove that he could play | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
with his right hand on the guitar. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
And that's, you know, that was genius. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:30 | |
Joao Gilberto used to play like that. | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
And used to play with the five fingers | 0:15:33 | 0:15:36 | |
in a strange way, this way. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
And he could swing with that way. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
I was amazed with the way he could play. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
So did you and Roberto Menescal then try and sort of imitate that way? | 0:15:43 | 0:15:48 | |
We all tried to copy that | 0:15:48 | 0:15:51 | |
cos that was the way of playing bossa nova. | 0:15:51 | 0:15:54 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:15:54 | 0:15:56 | |
Gilberto's playing style was a revelation. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:10 | |
But he also brought an attention to detail bordering on the obsessive. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
For him, it has to be that perfection, like Flaubert. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:21 | |
He would roll on the floor in search of the right word. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:25 | |
The same thing with Joao Gilberto, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:27 | |
and the same thing for anybody who considers himself bossa nova. | 0:16:27 | 0:16:31 | |
He has to have the right thing, | 0:16:31 | 0:16:34 | |
the right touch because otherwise you don't have art. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:39 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:16:39 | 0:16:41 | |
Samba is the rhythm, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
bossa nova is the way to play this song - | 0:16:46 | 0:16:49 | |
sweet, kind. | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
Intimate of voice, | 0:16:52 | 0:16:54 | |
minimalistic behaviour of the instruments. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
I call the bossa nova with one name - | 0:16:58 | 0:17:02 | |
Mona Lisa bossa nova. Yeah! | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
Same artistic perspective of Renaissance art. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:09 | |
Looking for the formal perfection | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
through the simple. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
Just the necessary, no more. | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:17:19 | 0:17:21 | |
Bossa nova is very romantic. | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
Very romantic, always. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
But the romance was always very light, very cool, never aggressive. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:40 | |
Like singing in the ears of a woman. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
Never screaming. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:45 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
The song was like meditation, you know, you get inside, you know, | 0:18:07 | 0:18:12 | |
it's not so extrovert, it's coming in, it's introverted, | 0:18:12 | 0:18:16 | |
it's like with yourself. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:18 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:18:18 | 0:18:20 | |
The art of bossa nova relied as much upon its sophisticated harmonies | 0:18:34 | 0:18:38 | |
and catchy melodies as it did the intimate performance style. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:42 | |
And the master composer and linchpin of the early scene | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
was Antonio Carlos or "Tom" Jobim. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
I'm travelling three hours north of Rio into the mountains to visit | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
the Jobim family's rustic country retreat. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:07 | |
It's out here in the wilderness | 0:19:07 | 0:19:08 | |
that Jobim wrote some of his best-known songs. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
So this is it, your grandfather's favourite place. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:28 | |
Favourite place in the world. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:30 | |
So how often would he come up here? | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
Oh, he would stay months at a time, writing songs every morning. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:37 | |
What did he love about this place, why did he always want to come up? | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
All the birds, he knew all the birds by the scientific name, you know. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:45 | |
And the melodies, which ones were doing, | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
and writing the songs together. | 0:19:47 | 0:19:49 | |
And from here he would use the whistle of the hunters, | 0:19:49 | 0:19:54 | |
to call the female or the male from the outside of the river. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:58 | |
-So this is amazing. -Yeah. Palm trees. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
-Very nice. -The monkeys jump from tree to tree. | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
My music comes from this... | 0:20:06 | 0:20:10 | |
environment here, you know, | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
the rain, the sun, the trees, | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
the birds, the mountains, the rocks. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
Beautiful. | 0:20:19 | 0:20:22 | |
He loved life. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
And those guys, they were all like that, they were bohemian, | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
they enjoyed life, they enjoyed beauty, they were into beauty. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:31 | |
So this is the studio... where it all happened. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:38 | |
Yes, his piano, upright piano, would be here with a bust of Chopin | 0:20:38 | 0:20:43 | |
and some pictures of family there. | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
And he would study here in the morning, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:49 | |
looking at the forest there... | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
and write all the songs. | 0:20:51 | 0:20:55 | |
He played at night, | 0:20:56 | 0:20:59 | |
like a pianist in bars. | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
And that was, for a while, | 0:21:02 | 0:21:05 | |
was not easy...not an easy living. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:10 | |
He wanted to be a classical pianist. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
So he studied Rachmaninoff - | 0:21:14 | 0:21:17 | |
he loved Stravinsky, | 0:21:17 | 0:21:20 | |
Chopin a lot - | 0:21:20 | 0:21:22 | |
and began writing arrangements. | 0:21:22 | 0:21:26 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:21:39 | 0:21:42 | |
Jobim, he innovated in | 0:22:10 | 0:22:13 | |
harmonic language what is possible. | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
He was a poet of harmony, | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
by putting chords or sounds together | 0:22:17 | 0:22:21 | |
that nobody thought would sound beautiful together, | 0:22:21 | 0:22:24 | |
and he knew how to do that. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
He would also link them together | 0:22:39 | 0:22:42 | |
with these melodies that were out of heaven. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:47 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:22:49 | 0:22:51 | |
He created a new grammar or vocabulary of harmony, | 0:23:08 | 0:23:13 | |
something that inspires musicians, | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
especially jazz musicians, all over the world. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:17 | |
By the end of the 1950s, a whole new scene was emerging here | 0:23:34 | 0:23:37 | |
in the beachfront South Zone area of Rio. | 0:23:37 | 0:23:41 | |
As the major players brought bossa out of their apartments | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
and into the world, their new sound, their new way of playing, | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
found their home in a loose network of small clubs and bars, | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
most famously here in Bottle Alley. | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:23:57 | 0:24:00 | |
The development of bossa nova, | 0:24:17 | 0:24:19 | |
the promotion of it, | 0:24:19 | 0:24:22 | |
was done in this small nightclub | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
that can hold 40, 50 people, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:28 | |
very tiny tables. | 0:24:28 | 0:24:31 | |
But you could listen to Tom Jobim, to Joao Gilberto. | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
They could almost avoid amplification, | 0:24:34 | 0:24:38 | |
that was beautiful that time. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
So, Sergio, when Bottles Bar was first opened in the 1950s and '60s, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:45 | |
it was THE place to come, wasn't it? | 0:24:45 | 0:24:47 | |
So the stars of stage and screen were now enjoying the new beat, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
alongside the cafe crowd in Rio, | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
and now they could also take home bossa nova on vinyl, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:35 | |
as the music business rushed to release albums | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
by all the original gang. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:39 | |
Even the record covers had their own, new aesthetic, | 0:25:39 | 0:25:42 | |
in keeping with the cool, minimalism of the movement. | 0:25:42 | 0:25:45 | |
And in spring 1961, | 0:25:46 | 0:25:48 | |
a group of respected American jazz musicians touched down in Brazil | 0:25:48 | 0:25:51 | |
as part of a state-sponsored goodwill tour, and their interest | 0:25:51 | 0:25:55 | |
in the new scene ran deeper than just a good night out. | 0:25:55 | 0:25:59 | |
All the bossa boys were listening to American jazz, but what they didn't | 0:26:10 | 0:26:13 | |
realise was that the big names in American jazz | 0:26:13 | 0:26:16 | |
were listing to them, too, and they loved what they were hearing. | 0:26:16 | 0:26:19 | |
Stars like Charlie Byrd and Gerry Mulligan flew down here | 0:26:19 | 0:26:22 | |
to Rio to visit and to play, | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
and the musical friendships that were born then would catapult | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
bossa nova onto the world stage. | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
When we talk about the classic moment when bossa nova | 0:26:52 | 0:26:54 | |
caught the attention of the jazz musicians up in the States, | 0:26:54 | 0:26:57 | |
what did they like about it, | 0:26:57 | 0:26:59 | |
what was it about bossa nova that made them sit up? | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
I think there are... | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
musical elements that are very common to both languages. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:10 | |
The first one is melody. | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
Because when you put it in relation to the harmony, | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
they become really complex notes, | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
chords that a jazz player will go, "Yes, that's what I need." | 0:27:18 | 0:27:23 | |
You know, it's juicy. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
They identified rhythm cos it has very much of what they gave to us, | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
especially the harmony. | 0:27:40 | 0:27:41 | |
The harmony, it's all from the American jazz. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
Guitarist Charlie Byrd wasted no time in recording his own versions | 0:27:45 | 0:27:48 | |
of the bossa nova he heard in Rio, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
teaming up with the legendary saxophonist Stan Getz | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
on the album Jazz Samba. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:56 | |
Released in April '62, | 0:27:56 | 0:27:57 | |
it sold half a million copies in 18 months | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
and became the only jazz album ever | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
to hit number one on the Billboard pop chart, | 0:28:03 | 0:28:07 | |
and the Tom Jobim tune Desafinado led the charge in the hit parade. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:11 | |
Here you have a mystery. The public really went for this. | 0:28:26 | 0:28:29 | |
It's jazz but I guess I'll use the word "accessible." | 0:28:29 | 0:28:33 | |
It's the melody, even though it's complex, is still singable, | 0:28:33 | 0:28:37 | |
which is sort of amazing. | 0:28:37 | 0:28:39 | |
It's not that easy, it's not Do Re Mi. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
That may have been the reason that, | 0:28:44 | 0:28:46 | |
wow, here's an audience who was looking for something like that. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:50 | |
And, interestingly enough, it wasn't vocal at the time, | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
Desafinado was an instrumental record | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
who hit way up in the top of the pop charts. | 0:28:56 | 0:28:59 | |
That's amazing in the music business. | 0:28:59 | 0:29:02 | |
Spying an opportunity after Desafinado's success, | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
record exec Sidney Frey hatched a plan | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
to introduce bossa's originators to the US market. | 0:29:17 | 0:29:20 | |
-REPORTER: -In music, if you want to start a movement, you hire a hall, | 0:29:23 | 0:29:26 | |
Carnegie Hall, to spread the word and the song. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:30 | |
One of the record executives had this idea to do a concert | 0:29:30 | 0:29:33 | |
at Carnegie Hall, really presenting Brazilian musicians. | 0:29:33 | 0:29:37 | |
That was their real entryway | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
into what becomes an international market. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
The importance of this opportunity was almost lost | 0:29:45 | 0:29:47 | |
on the more laid-back members of the scene back in Rio. | 0:29:47 | 0:29:51 | |
I'd never had been to the States before and I was amazed, you know, | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
the autumn in New York, you know, it's a beautiful season. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:36 | |
We went to the Carnegie Hall and they were lines of people, | 0:31:10 | 0:31:15 | |
it was crowded. Carnegie Hall was crowded. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
And it was full of important musicians in the audience. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
And we realised that something important was happening. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:26 | |
-REPORTER: -This was the official send-off for bossa nova. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
But the movement was already on its way and it's been going | 0:31:45 | 0:31:48 | |
all the stronger since. | 0:31:48 | 0:31:50 | |
In the record shops, racks full of bossa nova | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
that swings like Castro-Neves and some that's sweet and lyrical. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:57 | |
In either form, bossa nova is in. | 0:31:57 | 0:32:00 | |
# Blame it on the bossa nova | 0:32:00 | 0:32:02 | |
# With its magic spell... # | 0:32:02 | 0:32:06 | |
Some people just got on the bandwagon, didn't they? | 0:32:06 | 0:32:08 | |
Yes. The bossa nova dance craze, for instance, which never existed. | 0:32:08 | 0:32:12 | |
-What was that? -I have no idea. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:14 | |
But you had to have a dance because Latin music was all about dancing. | 0:32:14 | 0:32:20 | |
Now, samba is a dance, bossa nova, as far as I know, never was. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:24 | |
With the bossa nova, | 0:32:24 | 0:32:26 | |
the basic step is taken to the side with a little twist motion. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
# Blame it on the bossa nova | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
# With its magic spell... # | 0:32:33 | 0:32:36 | |
Bossa nova became so popular, | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
advertising just love it. | 0:32:39 | 0:32:40 | |
Everything was bossa nova. "Oh, it is a new building, | 0:32:40 | 0:32:44 | |
"buy the new building and the apartments, | 0:32:44 | 0:32:46 | |
"they are the bossa nova apartment." | 0:32:46 | 0:32:48 | |
They said, "Oh, you buy the new suit, bossa nova suit." | 0:32:48 | 0:32:53 | |
Bossa nova icebox, bossa nova lawyers. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:32:56 | 0:32:58 | |
Many things. And now I heard here on the radio the bossa nova haircut, | 0:32:58 | 0:33:03 | |
bossa nova shoes. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
This is not very good for the music. | 0:33:05 | 0:33:09 | |
Madison Avenue's version of bossa was but the latest fad | 0:33:18 | 0:33:21 | |
aimed squarely at a middle-class America and its preconceptions | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
about life south of the border. | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
Brazil represents, for the United States, | 0:33:28 | 0:33:31 | |
a utopian other, so Rio, | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
the most beautiful city in the world. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:37 | |
Brazilian culture, sensual, uninhibited, | 0:33:37 | 0:33:41 | |
notions of beauty are paramount. | 0:33:41 | 0:33:46 | |
And when Jobim, Gilberto and Stan Getz got it together | 0:33:46 | 0:33:49 | |
in a New York recording studio in the spring of 1963, | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
the song Jobim pulled from his suitcase | 0:33:52 | 0:33:55 | |
brought this fantasy to life | 0:33:55 | 0:33:56 | |
in the form of The Girl From Ipanema. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:59 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:33:59 | 0:34:02 | |
He and his writing partner, Vinicius de Moraes, | 0:34:13 | 0:34:15 | |
had composed the song at least a year earlier | 0:34:15 | 0:34:18 | |
on a typically relaxed day by the beach. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:21 | |
Vinicius de Moraes, you know, | 0:34:21 | 0:34:23 | |
he wrote the lyrics and I wrote the music. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:27 | |
We used to drink some draught, you know, | 0:34:27 | 0:34:30 | |
and watch the girls going to the sea, to the beach. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:34 | |
Nobody knew who she was... | 0:34:34 | 0:34:36 | |
..but she was so beautiful that everybody gasped. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:41 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:34:41 | 0:34:45 | |
The beautiful girl immortalised in the song had a name, | 0:34:45 | 0:34:48 | |
Helo Pinheiro, | 0:34:48 | 0:34:49 | |
and 50 years on, she's still turning heads on her way to the beach. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:53 | |
The two men, Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, | 0:34:54 | 0:34:58 | |
they are sitting at the bar, | 0:34:58 | 0:35:00 | |
the snack bar, and I was walking to the beach | 0:35:00 | 0:35:05 | |
and one told to him, | 0:35:05 | 0:35:09 | |
"Oh, I love the girl. All the time she passes here." | 0:35:09 | 0:35:15 | |
And when I passed, | 0:35:15 | 0:35:17 | |
"I am going to make a song for this girl." | 0:35:17 | 0:35:21 | |
The Girl From Ipanema comes, | 0:35:21 | 0:35:24 | |
it changed my life because it make me famous. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:28 | |
Helo Pinheiro became a symbol of the quintessential Rio beach girl, | 0:35:37 | 0:35:41 | |
but also represented something deeper | 0:35:41 | 0:35:43 | |
for lyricist Vinicius de Moraes, | 0:35:43 | 0:35:45 | |
a spiritual godfather to the bossa generation. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
He was a great friend, was a great man. | 0:35:48 | 0:35:52 | |
Very cultured, very warm, | 0:35:52 | 0:35:55 | |
and women loved him. | 0:35:55 | 0:35:58 | |
And believe me, he was short, bald, women just fell at his feet. | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
It was incredible. | 0:36:02 | 0:36:04 | |
THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:36:04 | 0:36:07 | |
He was a gentleman and he was raised to be like that, | 0:36:09 | 0:36:12 | |
to believe that a woman should be put on a higher ground, | 0:36:12 | 0:36:17 | |
to be adored and admired, | 0:36:17 | 0:36:20 | |
and made for love and forgiveness. | 0:36:20 | 0:36:23 | |
He wrote that, actually. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:25 | |
Yes, he probably needed a lot of forgiveness during his life. | 0:36:25 | 0:36:29 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:36:29 | 0:36:30 | |
Oh, yeah, definitely. | 0:36:30 | 0:36:32 | |
But, you know, how could you not forgive him? He was adorable. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:35 | |
A true bohemian, by the time the Bard of bossa began writing songs, | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
he'd already led a colourful life as a diplomat and man of letters. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:44 | |
He was a very important romantic poet. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:47 | |
One of the most important poets in Brazil. | 0:36:47 | 0:36:50 | |
And then he became a lyricist. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:52 | |
And he was one of the greatest lyricist in bossa nova. | 0:36:52 | 0:36:56 | |
He was the first Brazilian to have a scholarship | 0:36:56 | 0:37:01 | |
granted by Oxford University. | 0:37:01 | 0:37:03 | |
And he was very fond of Shakespearean poetry. | 0:37:03 | 0:37:10 | |
The best Vinicius moments, you have things like, | 0:37:10 | 0:37:13 | |
"Que coisa mais bonita voce ser," | 0:37:13 | 0:37:15 | |
"What a beautiful thing you are." | 0:37:15 | 0:37:18 | |
So simple things, | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
and Shakespeare reached it in Romeo And Juliet or Antony And Cleopatra. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:27 | |
Very simple things but very beautiful things. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
Vinicius ensured the words in bossa nova | 0:37:30 | 0:37:34 | |
were taken as seriously as the music. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
And the themes of love, the smile and the flower | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
became something of a manifesto for the genre. | 0:37:39 | 0:37:42 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:37:42 | 0:37:45 | |
However, the English-speaking audience were none the wiser. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:48 | |
That is until the recording of The Girl From Ipanema. | 0:37:48 | 0:37:52 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:37:52 | 0:37:54 | |
Back in New York, | 0:37:58 | 0:37:59 | |
crack lyricist Norman Gimbel had been enlisted to translate | 0:37:59 | 0:38:02 | |
the Portuguese lyrics into English. | 0:38:02 | 0:38:05 | |
Best known for his subsequent hits Killing Me Softly | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
and the Happy Days theme tune... | 0:38:08 | 0:38:09 | |
# These days are ours | 0:38:09 | 0:38:12 | |
-# Happy and free -Those happy days | 0:38:12 | 0:38:15 | |
# These days are ours... # | 0:38:15 | 0:38:19 | |
His interpretation of Garota de Ipanema cuts to the chase. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:23 | |
The first Portuguese lyrics, first couple lines, are... | 0:38:23 | 0:38:25 | |
"Olha que coisa mais linda, cheio de graca," | 0:38:25 | 0:38:29 | |
which literally is, | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
"Look at this beautiful thing, full of grace." | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
That's what it is literally. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:37 | |
In English it's, "Tall and tan and young and lovely, | 0:38:37 | 0:38:40 | |
"the girl from Ipanema." So it's very different. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:43 | |
Antonio Carlos Jobim didn't like the translation. | 0:38:43 | 0:38:47 | |
He was completely furious | 0:38:47 | 0:38:50 | |
with the words they put in English, | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
describing physically the girl | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
and not describing the impression | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
of something full of grace that walks by. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:05 | |
When you say full of grace, | 0:39:05 | 0:39:07 | |
you are referring to Our Lady of Mercy | 0:39:07 | 0:39:11 | |
and you need a woman to be your saviour. | 0:39:11 | 0:39:14 | |
But when you say tall and tanned and young, | 0:39:14 | 0:39:18 | |
you are talking about a beauty contest, it's so vulgar. | 0:39:18 | 0:39:23 | |
All objections aside, it was decided that at least one verse in English | 0:39:23 | 0:39:27 | |
would be a good idea after Joao Gilberto had kicked off the song | 0:39:27 | 0:39:30 | |
in Portuguese. | 0:39:30 | 0:39:32 | |
Step forward Joao's wife, Astrud Gilberto. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:36 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:39:36 | 0:39:39 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking | 0:39:39 | 0:39:42 | |
# And when she passes each one she passes goes | 0:39:42 | 0:39:47 | |
# "Ah..." # | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
Astrud, who had, as far as I know, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
didn't really have a career here at that point, | 0:39:54 | 0:39:57 | |
she was the only one who could speak English, | 0:39:57 | 0:40:00 | |
but she sings it in this karaoke style, | 0:40:00 | 0:40:03 | |
which is intimate and simple, | 0:40:03 | 0:40:06 | |
no vibrato. | 0:40:06 | 0:40:09 | |
Articulation is gorgeous, she's swinging, in her way. | 0:40:09 | 0:40:13 | |
# But each day when she walks to the sea | 0:40:13 | 0:40:17 | |
# She looks straight ahead not at he... # | 0:40:17 | 0:40:21 | |
It was so lovely. She was a girl from Ipanema singing. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
She was the way... | 0:40:24 | 0:40:26 | |
Nothing... You know, nothing... | 0:40:26 | 0:40:28 | |
Very natural singing. | 0:40:28 | 0:40:30 | |
# When she passes each one she passes goes | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
# "Ah..." # | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
Seduced by Astrud's voice, producer Creed Taylor made a decisive call | 0:40:35 | 0:40:39 | |
when it came to mastering the single. | 0:40:39 | 0:40:42 | |
The producer heard her singing | 0:40:44 | 0:40:48 | |
and then they took Joao Gilberto out, | 0:40:48 | 0:40:50 | |
they put only Astrud Gilberto singing. | 0:40:50 | 0:40:54 | |
# Oh | 0:40:54 | 0:40:56 | |
# But he watches so sadly | 0:40:56 | 0:41:00 | |
# How can he tell her he loves her? # | 0:41:01 | 0:41:08 | |
And with that, what started as a track on a Brazilian jazz album, | 0:41:08 | 0:41:12 | |
sung in Portuguese by a man, | 0:41:12 | 0:41:14 | |
became a pop single performed by a woman in English | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
but with an exotic accent. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:19 | |
# She looks straight ahead not at he | 0:41:19 | 0:41:23 | |
# Tall and tanned and young and lovely... # | 0:41:23 | 0:41:27 | |
This transformed The Girl From Ipanema's global appeal. | 0:41:27 | 0:41:31 | |
That accented voice | 0:41:31 | 0:41:33 | |
is something that becomes kind of marketable for the record company. | 0:41:33 | 0:41:39 | |
We have to take into account not just a sonic quality of her voice | 0:41:39 | 0:41:43 | |
but all that Brazil represents. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:46 | |
There is a lot of the foreign... | 0:41:46 | 0:41:50 | |
look into Brazil that you get through that version. | 0:41:50 | 0:41:55 | |
Tall and tanned and young and lovely - | 0:41:55 | 0:41:58 | |
the exotic. | 0:41:58 | 0:41:59 | |
It is just an irresistible sort of image, isn't it? | 0:41:59 | 0:42:02 | |
And it allows... | 0:42:02 | 0:42:05 | |
everyone abroad to project, especially men, | 0:42:05 | 0:42:08 | |
their fantasies about this woman, | 0:42:08 | 0:42:11 | |
this Brazilian woman. | 0:42:11 | 0:42:13 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:42:13 | 0:42:16 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking | 0:42:16 | 0:42:20 | |
# And when she passes, he smiles | 0:42:20 | 0:42:22 | |
# But she doesn't see | 0:42:22 | 0:42:24 | |
# She just doesn't see... # | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
The song was an international smash hit, | 0:42:27 | 0:42:29 | |
rising to the top five in the Billboard Hot 100 | 0:42:29 | 0:42:32 | |
and number one on the easy listening charts in the States. | 0:42:32 | 0:42:35 | |
It broke the top 30 in the UK | 0:42:35 | 0:42:37 | |
and went on to win the Grammy award for Record of the Year. | 0:42:37 | 0:42:41 | |
What was your father's reaction to his song becoming the record | 0:42:41 | 0:42:44 | |
of the year and getting a Grammy for being the record of the year? | 0:42:44 | 0:42:47 | |
It was a big surprise because it was a jazz record... | 0:42:47 | 0:42:52 | |
..and never a jazz record had sold so much. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:58 | |
It's accessible, it swings, and then it's in English. | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
That was a genius move. | 0:43:01 | 0:43:03 | |
The public likes it, the musicians like it. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
-It's the perfect record. -It's a perfect record. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:08 | |
I think it's a very nice song, I think it's a very well-written song, | 0:43:08 | 0:43:12 | |
beautiful melody, and incredible lyrics. | 0:43:12 | 0:43:16 | |
It was like a bossa nova hymn all over the world. | 0:43:16 | 0:43:20 | |
The Girl From Ipanema has been recorded over 500 times | 0:43:20 | 0:43:23 | |
by some of the biggest names in music. | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:43:26 | 0:43:29 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking | 0:43:29 | 0:43:33 | |
# When he passes each girl he passes goes | 0:43:33 | 0:43:35 | |
# "Ah..." | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
# When she passes each one she passes goes | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
# Daboo-du-daa... # | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
It's believed to be the second-most recorded popular song | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
of the 20th century, second only to the Beatles' Yesterday. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:52 | |
And the Beatles themselves were honoured at the same Grammy awards | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
in 1965 for Best New Artist. | 0:43:55 | 0:43:59 | |
Just as The Girl From Ipanema broke bossa nova into the mainstream, | 0:43:59 | 0:44:03 | |
the Brits arrived on American turf with their own new beat, | 0:44:03 | 0:44:06 | |
rendering all that came before yesterday's music. | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
However, this changing of the guard on the front line of pop was trivial | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
compared to the real invasion going on back home in Rio. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:29 | |
It was an impact for us. | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
Everything has changed. Freedom of the press - over. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:36 | |
The bossa nova President Kubitschek's successors | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
had begun to lean radically towards communist regimes. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:45 | |
On April 1st, 1964, | 0:44:47 | 0:44:49 | |
a US-backed military coup | 0:44:49 | 0:44:51 | |
brutally called time on Brazil's experiment with democracy. | 0:44:51 | 0:44:55 | |
When the military came in '64 and took power, | 0:44:56 | 0:45:00 | |
nobody knew it was going to become so bloody and dangerous. | 0:45:00 | 0:45:04 | |
There were people being taken to prison, being tortured, | 0:45:04 | 0:45:07 | |
artists being censored. | 0:45:07 | 0:45:09 | |
Suddenly, you know, we lived under | 0:45:09 | 0:45:12 | |
a very, very oppressive dictatorship. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:17 | |
Everybody was afraid to say anything because maybe some neighbour... | 0:45:17 | 0:45:22 | |
This kind of crazy thing that, for Rio, Brazil, it was crazy. | 0:45:22 | 0:45:26 | |
We were persecuted. There were announcements on the radio - | 0:45:26 | 0:45:30 | |
"Don't ever play Antonio Carlos Jobim." | 0:45:30 | 0:45:36 | |
They put him on the blacklist. | 0:45:36 | 0:45:39 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:45:46 | 0:45:48 | |
Bossa nova's fixation on romantic themes and its air of refinement, | 0:45:56 | 0:46:01 | |
which so fitted the optimism of the Kubitschek era, | 0:46:01 | 0:46:04 | |
was now at odds with the mood of the nation. | 0:46:04 | 0:46:07 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:46:08 | 0:46:10 | |
The young generations, like my own, | 0:46:15 | 0:46:18 | |
a lot of people thought bossa nova was not reflecting any more | 0:46:18 | 0:46:23 | |
the situation of the country because it was too light, | 0:46:23 | 0:46:26 | |
and the situation was too heavy. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:29 | |
So all of a sudden that was old news. | 0:46:29 | 0:46:32 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:46:32 | 0:46:34 | |
Some people carried on writing, you know, | 0:46:40 | 0:46:44 | |
love songs and ignoring everything else, as always, of course. | 0:46:44 | 0:46:49 | |
But some people thought, no, no, no, we can't, we have to, | 0:46:49 | 0:46:53 | |
we have to try and do what we can, using music perhaps, let's try. | 0:46:53 | 0:46:58 | |
There was a big split on bossa nova from that time on. | 0:46:58 | 0:47:03 | |
Menescal stayed on this bossa nova. | 0:47:03 | 0:47:07 | |
Light, jazz, beaches, little boats. | 0:47:07 | 0:47:13 | |
Loving the afternoon. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:15 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:47:35 | 0:47:37 | |
But for others, it was time to take a stand, | 0:47:40 | 0:47:43 | |
and the split deepened in the bossa generation | 0:47:43 | 0:47:46 | |
when Nara Leao turned her back on her old crowd by the beach. | 0:47:46 | 0:47:50 | |
She was very outspoken about bossa nova | 0:48:21 | 0:48:23 | |
-and how it was dead and useless... -Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:27 | |
-Yeah, very much. -They called her the bossa nova muse. | 0:48:27 | 0:48:30 | |
But being the clever woman she was, | 0:48:31 | 0:48:34 | |
she wouldn't stand in that role forever, | 0:48:34 | 0:48:37 | |
she was a very political head. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:40 | |
They started to do... | 0:49:05 | 0:49:07 | |
..music and lyrics about peasants, | 0:49:09 | 0:49:15 | |
oppressed people, and all the lyrics should be aggressive, | 0:49:15 | 0:49:21 | |
more related to our origins. | 0:49:21 | 0:49:24 | |
We should do music for the people. | 0:49:24 | 0:49:27 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:49:27 | 0:49:31 | |
Nara Leao was not alone in her opinion. | 0:49:31 | 0:49:34 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:49:34 | 0:49:36 | |
And as the counterculture kicked in hard at the end of the decade, | 0:49:37 | 0:49:41 | |
Tropicalia blasted away the quiet minimalism of bossa with a heady mix | 0:49:41 | 0:49:45 | |
of rock and roll and psychedelia. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:48 | |
Bossa nova was nothing any more, | 0:49:49 | 0:49:52 | |
was completely despicable, | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
was corny, was cheesy, was... | 0:49:55 | 0:50:00 | |
something very old. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:02 | |
And the great bossa nova stars, | 0:50:02 | 0:50:06 | |
Jobim, Joao Gilberto, they moved to the US. | 0:50:06 | 0:50:10 | |
Insulated from the turbulent times back home, bossa nova in the US | 0:50:14 | 0:50:18 | |
had matured like a fine wine into a grown-up music for | 0:50:18 | 0:50:21 | |
the middle classes enjoying their creature comforts in the suburbs. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:25 | |
The instrument - guitar. The beat - bossa nova. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:30 | |
The artist - Antonio Carlos Jobim. | 0:50:30 | 0:50:34 | |
HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:50:34 | 0:50:36 | |
For Jobim, that was the key to the world. | 0:50:40 | 0:50:43 | |
For Frank Sinatra to come along and say, "Stop everything, | 0:50:43 | 0:50:46 | |
"it's bossa nova, it's Jobim," | 0:50:46 | 0:50:48 | |
that's like God coming down and saying, | 0:50:48 | 0:50:51 | |
"This I'm going to put my signature on." That's a big deal. | 0:50:51 | 0:50:54 | |
Tom Jobim settled into his new position alongside Ol' Blue Eyes | 0:50:54 | 0:50:58 | |
with consummate ease. The album they recorded together in 1967 | 0:50:58 | 0:51:03 | |
is widely regarded as one of Sinatra's finest, | 0:51:03 | 0:51:07 | |
and completed bossa nova's induction | 0:51:07 | 0:51:09 | |
to the great American song book. | 0:51:09 | 0:51:11 | |
And, of course, in this national TV special, | 0:51:13 | 0:51:15 | |
The Girl From Ipanema was the jewel of the set list. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:51:18 | 0:51:21 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking and | 0:51:21 | 0:51:25 | |
# When she passes each one she passes goes | 0:51:25 | 0:51:29 | |
# "Ah..." | 0:51:29 | 0:51:33 | |
HE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:51:33 | 0:51:35 | |
I love that beautiful performance they did live, playing there, | 0:51:41 | 0:51:44 | |
in front with the suits. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:46 | |
And smoking the cigarette, Sinatra is smoking and singing. | 0:51:46 | 0:51:50 | |
Can you believe this? | 0:51:50 | 0:51:52 | |
My grandfather is playing the guitar because he was basically | 0:51:53 | 0:51:56 | |
the piano player but he learned the guitar. | 0:51:56 | 0:51:58 | |
And Sinatra wanted to have on the album the guitar | 0:51:58 | 0:52:01 | |
because it looks more Latin, so he asked for it. | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
So he had to study a little more. | 0:52:04 | 0:52:06 | |
Whatever Sinatra asks you to do, you have to do. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:10 | |
BOTH: # But each day when she walks to the sea | 0:52:10 | 0:52:13 | |
# She looks straight ahead not at me... # | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
Wow. Can't believe it. | 0:52:17 | 0:52:20 | |
I still can't believe it. | 0:52:20 | 0:52:22 | |
This is, in a sense, even more of an arrival | 0:52:22 | 0:52:25 | |
into world musical culture than getting invited | 0:52:25 | 0:52:29 | |
to perform at Carnegie Hall. This is the real arrival for Jobim. | 0:52:29 | 0:52:34 | |
This is the mark that he is a major composer. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:39 | |
I think he was valued in America. | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
I don't think the bossa nova people are valued enough in Brazil. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:46 | |
They would talk about bossa nova, even in a dismissive way, like, oh, | 0:52:46 | 0:52:50 | |
you know, that's boring, that's over. | 0:52:50 | 0:52:53 | |
"They sold out to America," was the reaction in Brazil. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:58 | |
Very Brazilian... | 0:52:58 | 0:53:00 | |
Jobim had a phrase, in Brazil... | 0:53:00 | 0:53:03 | |
..success is a personal offence. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:08 | |
It was so criticised in Brazil. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:12 | |
This poor man, this genius. | 0:53:12 | 0:53:14 | |
Few Brazilians have made so much for this country than Jobim. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:19 | |
In just a few years, bossa nova had gone mainstream, | 0:53:19 | 0:53:23 | |
growing up from an intimate local beat | 0:53:23 | 0:53:25 | |
into an internationally renowned repertoire of popular standards. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:30 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:53:34 | 0:53:36 | |
I've been in Romania and Russia, | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
so faraway places | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
and always the same. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:52 | |
It's always... | 0:53:52 | 0:53:55 | |
full of people, sold out. | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
And in Japan they are crazy about bossa nova. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:01 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:54:01 | 0:54:04 | |
You go anywhere in the world | 0:54:12 | 0:54:14 | |
and you can hear bossa nova in major concert halls. | 0:54:14 | 0:54:17 | |
I've seen Joao Gilberto in Carnegie Hall. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:21 | |
It's the same repertoire being performed in more or less | 0:54:21 | 0:54:24 | |
the same way that it has been for the past 50 years. | 0:54:24 | 0:54:28 | |
In this sense, bossa nova can be deemed a classical music. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
Bossa nova, to me, is art, | 0:54:32 | 0:54:33 | |
I separate it, I make a distinction there. | 0:54:33 | 0:54:36 | |
The music that's big in Brazil nowadays is the entertainment music. | 0:54:36 | 0:54:40 | |
It's music done for people to dance to, to dance, | 0:54:40 | 0:54:46 | |
to enjoy carnival, | 0:54:46 | 0:54:49 | |
it's the big masses sort of music. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:54:52 | 0:54:54 | |
I love entertainment, | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
but if I want to kind of be quiet and be taken somewhere else, | 0:55:01 | 0:55:06 | |
I need the right music for it, and it's not going to be... | 0:55:06 | 0:55:10 | |
the entertainment music, it's art, I want to go somewhere, | 0:55:10 | 0:55:13 | |
it takes me somewhere. | 0:55:13 | 0:55:14 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:55:17 | 0:55:19 | |
Wherever you are in the world, | 0:55:25 | 0:55:26 | |
the place bossa nova will always transport you to is Rio, | 0:55:26 | 0:55:30 | |
the birthplace, | 0:55:30 | 0:55:31 | |
where for many years this precious music was all but forgotten. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:35 | |
But slowly Brazil has begun to value its greatest cultural export | 0:55:35 | 0:55:40 | |
and celebrate bossa's founding fathers. | 0:55:40 | 0:55:43 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:55:43 | 0:55:46 | |
These heroes of bossa nova became... | 0:56:00 | 0:56:05 | |
part of our landscape | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
nowadays in Rio. | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
Vinicius de Moraes is a street in Ipanema. | 0:56:10 | 0:56:15 | |
The neighbourhood celebrated his wonderful song. | 0:56:15 | 0:56:19 | |
And Tom Jobim is our main airport. | 0:56:19 | 0:56:23 | |
Now, we have both | 0:56:23 | 0:56:26 | |
as part of our sentimental and geographical landscape. | 0:56:26 | 0:56:32 | |
And even away from the beachfront bars and tourist attractions, | 0:56:40 | 0:56:44 | |
the irrepressible sound of The Girl From Ipanema can still be heard. | 0:56:44 | 0:56:48 | |
# Tall and tan and young and lovely | 0:56:48 | 0:56:51 | |
# The girl from Ipanema goes walking and | 0:56:51 | 0:56:55 | |
# When she passes each guy she passes goes | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
# "Ah..." | 0:56:59 | 0:57:03 | |
I've been here in Rio for a week and I've seen for myself the magic | 0:57:03 | 0:57:07 | |
that inspired bossa nova. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:10 | |
Of course, we can't compare today with the golden age | 0:57:10 | 0:57:13 | |
of the late 1950s and early '60s | 0:57:13 | 0:57:15 | |
when life here in Rio was good and the whole world fell in love | 0:57:15 | 0:57:19 | |
with that idyllic image of Brazil | 0:57:19 | 0:57:21 | |
as painted by the song The Girl From Ipanema. | 0:57:21 | 0:57:25 | |
# But each day when she walks to the sea | 0:57:25 | 0:57:28 | |
# She looks straight ahead not at me... # | 0:57:28 | 0:57:33 | |
You know what? That's OK because that idyllic image still exists. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:36 | |
You can go down to the beach any day of the week and see your very own | 0:57:36 | 0:57:39 | |
girl from Ipanema making her way to the white sand | 0:57:39 | 0:57:42 | |
and the clear blue sea. | 0:57:42 | 0:57:44 | |
And the music lives on, | 0:57:46 | 0:57:48 | |
in places like this, high up in the hills above the beach, | 0:57:48 | 0:57:51 | |
and it lives on in the hearts of the people here | 0:57:51 | 0:57:55 | |
because bossa nova is the soundtrack to that ideal version of Brazil. | 0:57:55 | 0:58:00 | |
SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:58:00 | 0:58:03 |