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Welcome To BossaNovaVideo!
A website dedicated to the most beautiful music in the world...bossa nova.
All About Bossa Nova!
The bossa nova had its birth in Brazil. It was born in Rio de Janeiro, the musical city
by the sea, as was appropriate. A group of youngsters seeking something different in music and a composer by the name of Antônio Carlos Jobim were getting together in local bars to play and create some of their ideas. Little did
they know that a young man from the north by the name of João Gilberto would cross their paths and
take them to musical heights they never dreamed imaginable. João didn’t know it either, but
out of his musical expression, a new idea, a seductive and velvety soft carpet of possibilities was about to emerge. This
was bossa nova!
Songs like "Chega de Saudade" and "Desafinado" started to appear over local broadcast stations. Jobims’
melodic display of notes sprinkled delicately over his keyboard along with the deliberate syncopation of Gilberto's voice
and intelligently unpredictable, yet quiet rhythms on his guitar, were beginning to move a country of samba, military
dictatorship, bleak class structure and industrial stagnation onto the global music scene which until today, has never been
surpassed. In the eyes of many, Brazil still is, the bossa nova.
In the early sixties "The Girl from Ipanema" hit the United States airwaves and caused a musical frenzy of
excitement over this "new beat" and the U. S. State Department sent guitarist Charlie Byrd and saxophonist Stan Getz to Rio
de Janeiro to be part of this new musical culture. In 1962 many of the new musicians and singers came to appear at Carnegie
Hall. The audience fell in love with the new sound and it wasn’t long before bossa nova became an international phenomenon.
Its influence is of major importance around the world.
Other songs like "Meditation", "One Note Samba", "Corcovado", "Insensitive", Aguas de Março","Ela é Carioca", "Agua de Beber", "Wave", and "Só Danço
Samba" began to appear, with such artists as Astrud Gilberto, Nara Leão, Roberto Menescal, Elis
Regina, Carlos Lyra, The Tamba Trio, Os Cariocas and Vinicius de Moraes singing their musical renditions. The bars, clubs,
airwaves and streets around the world were caught up in the new beat, and Brazil was finding her rightful place in the musical
world. Little did we know that the chance meeting of west-coast cool jazz and samba would lead to this wonderful, seductive
and sophisticated sound of this new beat.
Many of the original composers and singers of this movement have passed on, but surely have not been forgotten.
Other forms of music have replaced it...but have never taken its place. There will always be room in this world for just "one
more note" of bossa nova.
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| Meet the group that started it all! |
About Bill Dee
I am a bossa nova guitarist and have over 700 original LPs
and CDs that go back to the '60‘s. My collection also contains many books, songbooks and manuscripts that
are bossa nova related. I also collect bossa nova videos (about 175 at present, which is about 70,000 feet of
film footage) that include such artists as Tom Jobim, João Gilberto, Baden Powell, Elizeth Cardoso,
Caetano Veloso, Luiz Bonfá, Sebastião Tapajos, Carlos Lyra, Vinicius de
Moraes, Laurindo Almeida, Stan Getz, Astrud Gilberto, Bola Sete, Nara Leão, Wanda Sá, Toquinho,
Elis Regina, Roberto Menescal and others.
During the '70's I made three trips to Rio de Janeiro to enjoy Carnaval and lived there for about eleven
months. Bossa nova has always been the light that guides me. The softness and emotional content of its sound...is why this
site exists. I have reached out across the waters to Norway, Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Great Britain, Spain,
Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Hawaii, Russia, Singapore, Greece, Peru, Puerto Rico and Japan, to find friends
who share this phenomenon called bossa nova. I am very impressed with finding out that this movement is world-wide and continues
to grow. I receive lots of inquiries about bossa nova. Some asking which are the best CDs or old LPs to purchase, what
books to read and where they can buy lyrics and written music.
I am looking for people who have their own bossa nova videos, original film footage or
TV recordings, in order to build up my collection, in hope that at some point in time, it will turn out to be one of
the largest bossa nova video archives that can be used for historical reference, in the world. Film footage once held
as archives in Brazil are lost forever due to a fire many years ago. I am attempting to restore it as much as possible
with the help of others, so that much of its historical significance can be saved for future generations to
view. This is an undertaking of huge proportions and very much worth the effort. At some point in time the
entire archive will be donated to an appropriate concern that will keep it forever as an important historical reference and
in safekeeping. The bossa nova was too important a movement in the history of Brazilian music to be forgotten. I will attempt
to keep it alive and thriving.
Video Archives and Wish List
Please go to the "Video Archives" page or my "Wish
List" by clicking on the link above. Here you can find a list of videos that are in the collection, as well as items
I am looking for!
You can reach me on the link below that says: Click here to email William Dee.
Please don't use the handy comment section below...it does not function. Any questions just email
me.
Click here to email William Dee
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