Bossa nova

Bossa nova (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbɔsɐ ˈnɔvɐ] ^ⓘ) is a relaxed style of samba^{[nb 1]} developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.^[2] It is mainly characterized by a calm syncopated rhythm with chords and fingering style mimicking the beat of a samba groove, as if it was 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.^[3][4] A common misconception is to assume that these complex chords and harmonies were derived from jazz, but there's register of samba guitar players 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.^[5][6] Neverthless bossa nova was influenced by jazz especially when it comes to the instrumentation of songs and by musical partnerships since the inception of the style, today many bossa nova songs are considered as jazz standards. The increase in 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.^[2][6] 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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