The Ultimate Bossa List...

[mr. beaumont]

As a subset of the Summer of Rhythm Guitar I want to make sure my Bossa rep is on the up and up. A goal of mine is to go back and learn some of these tunes that I already "know" straight from the records...I've noticed that so much Bossa "instruction" online is really, really bad.

Anyway...here's a list of songs I think would be good to know. I know quite a few, but I want to know them, you know?

Desafinado
OPato
Triste
One Note Samba
Bahia
Girl from Ipanema
Doralice
Corcovado
O Grande Amor
Wave
Aguas de Marco
Agua de Beber
How Insensitive
Meditiation
Mahna de Carnival
Samba de Orfeu
A Felicidade
Chega de Saudade

What else? Add your favorites...

[AllanAllen]

Recorde Me
Perdido
Black Orpheus
Song for my Father
Gibraltar
Green Dolphin has that cool swing/latin form

I agree bossa instruction is pretty not great

The originals on Ike Quebec's Soul Samba are also really good. But, like A Smo-o-o-th One, I think you'll need a lead sheet to call those anywhere.

[joe2758]

I don't play bossa, but what is it that the teachers are getting wrong?

Also my favorite is the one gypsy jazz guys play all the time? Might not technically be bossa I dunno but I like the melody

[Christian Miller]

Inutil Paisagem
Estate

[Christian Miller]

So Danco Samba
So Nice

[Christian Miller]

No more Booze

[Christian Miller]

I don't play bossa, but what is it that the teachers are getting wrong?

The chords are often wrong in sources.
Also, a lot of jazz musicians don't get the feel and patterns right.

Also my favorite is the one gypsy jazz guys play all the time? Might not technically be bossa I dunno but I like the melody

Manouche bossa is sort of its own thing haha. The famous 'banana' feel.

[joe2758]

The chords are often wrong in sources.
Also, a lot of jazz musicians don't get the feel and patterns right.



Manouche bossa is sort of its own thing haha. The famous 'banana' feel.

I think Peter Bernstein did it...can't think of the name

[AllanAllen]

To piggyback Christian. The instruction I've seen is all strum patterns and no feel. Like, I don't hear Kenny Burrell doing formulaic patterns on Soul Samba

[joe2758]

I think Peter Bernstein did it...can't think of the name

Dorado

[Christian Miller]

To piggyback Christian. The instruction I've seen is all strum patterns and no feel. Like, I don't hear Kenny Burrell doing formulaic patterns on Soul Samba

TBH I separate Blue Note 'bossa' as its own thing.

It is important to learn the rhythms. You should know what the instruments in a Samba bateria do. Play a percussion little yourself. On the guitar we are moistly play Surdo with the thumb and mostly Tamborim with the fingers. You should know what a Partido Alto is. Listen to various genres of Samba (Batucada is my favourite). All that stuff.

Other mistakes, samba and Bossa is often written out in 4/4, but it's a 2/4 feel with 16th subdivisions. You have to feel those 16ths in your feel.

But as you say, the patterns are not enough. You go and listen to Joao and he plays the most basic #1 Bossa rhythm one measure pattern all the way through a song - bass on the beat, and chords on the + of 1 and the e of 2 - but it sounds incredible and hypnotic.

And then there's the subtle samba swing, which I think you have to learn through playing percussion.

Guitar wise, it's things like knowing not to place the second bass note of the bar higher than the first (in fact, alternating bass is rarer than it might seem), and the authentic voicings to use.

I'm not great at it, but I've had some great teachers in Brazilian music, and played a bit of percussion myself. So it's not their fault haha.

[AllanAllen]

Album recommendation to hear Joao front and center? I like the blue note bossa because I can hear the guitar well.

[joe2758]

I think I recall Joao saying he considered what he did to be samba

[AllanAllen]

I think I recall Joao saying he considered what he did to be samba

I guess that's another question for Jeff, is "bossa" being used as slang for latin style jazz, or does he literally mean what musicologists classify as the latin sub-genre of Bossa Nova.

[Danny W.]

Sabia

Tristeza

Samba de Orfeu

Borzeguim

Danny W.

[kris]

Apelo
Favela
So Nice/Summer Samba/
Berimbau
Bim-Bom
O Barquinho
Dindi

[mr. beaumont]

I guess I'm specifically talking about the music of Joao and Jobim and what came after. So Brazilian with American influence, not the other way around.

The thing I see the most of online is being so damn BUSY in the rhythm guitar playing. It's awful...syncopated, alternating bass...ugh.

[mr. beaumont]

Album recommendation to hear Joao front and center? I like the blue note bossa because I can hear the guitar well.

There's a record called "Voz y Violao" on Verve that's literally only Joao, guitar and voice.

You'll really hear the 1 & 2 e here.

[John A.]

Gentile ... oops, I mean Gentle Rain
Once I Loved

[PMB]

Two Jobim bossas that I play regularly are Vivo Sonhando and O Grande Amor. Also Bruno Martino's Estate in 7/8 (it feels so right in that time signature that it's now hard for me to go back and play it in 2/4).

[PMB]

As a subset of the Summer of Rhythm Guitar I want to make sure my Bossa rep is on the up and up. A goal of mine is to go back and learn some of these tunes that I already "know" straight from the records...I've noticed that so much Bossa "instruction" online is really, really bad.

Anyway...here's a list of songs I think would be good to know. I know quite a few, but I want to know them, you know?

Desafinado
OPato
Triste
One Note Samba
Bahia
Girl from Ipanema
Doralice
Corcovado
O Grande Amor
Wave
Aguas de Marco
Agua de Beber
How Insensitive
Meditiation
Mahna de Carnival
Samba de Orfeu
A Felicidade
Chega de Saudade

What else? Add your favorites...

Nice list, I've played most of these.

Yes, best to go to the source. The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-61) is an excellent collection:



One of the better bossa instruction channels on YouTube:

bossanovaguitar - YouTube

These albums and videos coupled with books by Almir Chediak and Nelson Faria will get most people started in the right direction.

[AllanAllen]

Two Jobim bossas that I play regularly are Vivo Sonhando and O Grande Amor. Also Bruno Martino's Estate in 7/8 (it feels so right in that time signature that it's now hard for me to go back and play it in 2/4).

Like Ed Bickert’s 3/4 Con Alma. It just feels right in 3.

[PMB]

Like Ed Bickert’s 3/4 Con Alma. It just feels right in 3.

Ed Bickert always gets it right. One of his greatest albums.

Con Alma, like Estate is particularly amenable to time signature changes. Jesse van Ruller plays it in 5/4. Those two tunes share a mixture of long held notes followed by shorter melodic statements and that leaves lots of room for rhythmic alteration.

You were asking about original bossa recordings with the guitar out front, Allan. mr.beaumont offered one suggestion and the Gilberto recording I mentioned is also worth checking out. Not solo guitar but still pretty clear:

[AllanAllen]

There's a record called "Voz y Violao" on Verve that's literally only Joao, guitar and voice.

You'll really hear the 1 & 2 e here.

This is great.

[rpjazzguitar]

Nice list, I've played most of these.

Yes, best to go to the source. The Legendary João Gilberto: The Original Bossa Nova Recordings (1958-61) is an excellent collection:



One of the better bossa instruction channels on YouTube:

bossanovaguitar - YouTube

These albums and videos coupled with books by Almir Chediak and Nelson Faria will get most people started in the right direction.

Chediak did 5 volumes on Bossa Nova. A few hundred tunes. Excellent resource. Faria's book Brazilian Guitar Styles is so good you can actually learn to play the styles he covers. I don't know which videos to recommend, but, I would suggest learning from Brazilians. Sure, some others can play and teach the style, but I trust the Brazilians.