Music: Bossa Nova

Nobody is sure just what it is, or even what its name implies: according to various experts, the Portuguese slang expression bossa nova can mean “the latest thing” or “the new beat” or “the new wrinkle.” Bossa literally means a protuberance, but in the argot of Rio, it connotes a natural talent or knack, as in the line, “The Duke has a lot of bossa.” The only points everybody is agreed on are that 1) bossa nova is a weird crossbreeding of cool jazz with chili-peppered Latin rhythms and 2) it is big, and getting even bigger.

Although it is generally too slow to dance to, bossa nova has been the rage of Brazilian café society for several years.

In its home country it has become almost a religion. “Philosophically,” says Brazilian Jazzman Ronaldo Boscoli, “bossa nova is a frame of mind in the same way that Chaplin, Picasso, Prokofiev, Debussy and even Beethoven represented a new frame of mind. They were bossa nova in their time” Such U.S. jazzmen as Flutist Herbie Mann heard the new music, liked it and began putting it in their programs back home. (“Twist music,” said Mann, “;is all show and promise —no inner fire. Bossa nova is just the opposite.”) Another early convert was Jazz Guitarist Charlie Byrd, who heard bossa nova while on a State Department-sponsored tour of Latin America. It was simple, Byrd discovered, “to play a very full jazz solo with this stuff; you can do a great deal that you can’t do with regular four-four time.” Byrd cut a bossa nova album with Tenor Saxophonist Stan Getz. Soon there were bossa nova recordings by, among others, Vibraharpist Cal Tjader, Bandleader Lionel Hampton, Saxophonists Sonny Rollins and Zoot Sims. The record companies, hungry for a trend, are now ready to rush 15 or so albums with bossa nova numbers onto the market. Among the featured performers: Peggy Lee, George Shearing. Vic Damone, Paul Anka.

Bossa nova is a loose, relaxed and infectious music that puts far more emphasis on melody than is usual in modern jazz.

In practice, it can sound like straight samba music with an occasional solo twitter or two thrown in for jazz flavor, or like the meditative, moody farther reaches of chamber jazz. But when it is tastefully done, it has great appeal, with the long, sinewy lines of improvising jazzmen pinned dramatically against richly filigreed percussion backgrounds.