Bossa Nova

1913 · Rio de Janeiro

A diplomat and poet known as "O Poetinha," Vinícius wrote the lyrics that gave bossa nova its literary weight, partnering with Jobim on "Chega de Saudade," "Garota de Ipanema" and "Insensatez." His verses traded sentimental excess for everyday tenderness — longing, the sea, a girl walking to the beach.

1922 · Rio de Janeiro

A virtuoso guitarist of an older generation, Bonfá co-wrote the music for the 1959 film "Orfeu Negro," whose international success helped prepare the ground for bossa nova abroad.

1927 · Rio de Janeiro

Composer, pianist and arranger, Jobim gave bossa nova its harmonic vocabulary — the unhurried, jazz-tinged chords beneath songs like "Chega de Saudade," "Desafinado" and "Garota de Ipanema." Working closely with the poet Vinícius de Moraes and the lyricist Newton Mendonça, he wrote the repertoire that carried the movement abroad.

1927 · Rio de Janeiro

A pianist and childhood friend of Jobim, Mendonça co-wrote two of bossa nova's wittiest self-portraits, "Desafinado" and "Samba de Uma Nota Só." His lyrics turned the music's own technique into subject matter, half-joking about singing off-key in defense of a new, understated style.

1927 · New York City

An American tenor saxophonist famed for his warm, breathy "cool jazz" tone, Getz became bossa nova's most important North American champion.

1931 · Rio de Janeiro

A Bahian guitarist who moved to Rio and, around 1957, distilled the loose swing of samba into a hushed, syncopated stroke known as the batida — the rhythmic signature of bossa nova.

1933 · Rio de Janeiro

A singer-songwriter from Rio's first bossa generation, Lyra helped run the early guitar workshops that spread the new style among middle-class youth.

1934 · Rio de Janeiro

A pianist and accordionist whose harmonically adventurous playing predates and shadows the bossa nova generation, Donato was an early influence on João Gilberto and Jobim.

1937 · Rio de Janeiro

Guitarist, composer and teacher, Menescal ran an influential guitar school in Copacabana that trained many of bossa nova's younger players.

1940 · New York City

Not a professional singer before 1963, Astrud Gilberto was present at the Getz/Gilberto sessions and sang the English verses of "The Girl from Ipanema" almost by chance.

1941 · Rio de Janeiro

A pianist and bandleader who emerged from Rio's bossa nova clubs, Mendes performed at the 1962 Carnegie Hall concert while still in his early twenties.

1942 · Rio de Janeiro

Once called the muse of bossa nova for hosting its formative gatherings in her Copacabana apartment, Nara Leão became a bridge figure who lent the new movement her credibility by joining the 1968 collective album.

1958 · Rio de Janeiro

Composed by Antônio Carlos Jobim with lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes, "Chega de Saudade" is widely treated as the founding song of bossa nova.

1958-08 · Rio de Janeiro

Released on Odeon in August 1958, this 78 rpm single paired João Gilberto's "Chega de Saudade" with his own "Bim Bom" and is often cited as the first true bossa nova record.

1959 · Rio de Janeiro

Composed by Jobim with lyrics by Newton Mendonça, "Desafinado" — literally "out of tune" — is bossa nova's playful self-defense, answering critics who called the new style flat and tuneless.

1959-03 · Rio de Janeiro

João Gilberto's debut LP, released on Odeon in March 1959 and produced by Antônio Carlos Jobim, is the foundational album of bossa nova.

1961 · Rio de Janeiro

Composed by Jobim with lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes, "Insensatez" is a study in regret built over a slow, chromatically falling progression often compared to a Chopin prelude.

1962 · Rio de Janeiro

Written in 1962 by Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes, reportedly inspired by a young woman they watched walk to the beach in the Ipanema district, this song became bossa nova's most famous melody.

1962-04 · Washington, D.C.

Recorded by Stan Getz and guitarist Charlie Byrd in a single session at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C., on 13 February 1962 and released by Verve that April, Jazz Samba was the album that detonated the bossa nova craze in the United States.

1963 · New York City

The English-language adaptation of "Garota de Ipanema" set new lyrics by Norman Gimbel to Jobim's melody, preserving Vinícius de Moraes's original imagery of a girl passing by the sea.

1964-03 · New York City

Recorded in New York in 1963 and released by Verve in March 1964, Getz/Gilberto paired Stan Getz with João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim in the definitive bossa nova crossover album.

1962-11-21 · New York City

On 21 November 1962 a landmark concert at Carnegie Hall presented bossa nova to a packed New York audience, with João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, Sérgio Mendes, Carlos Lyra and Roberto Menescal sharing the bill with American jazz players including Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd.

1964-03 · New York City

The March 1964 release of Getz/Gilberto on Verve marked the commercial peak of the bossa nova boom in the United States.

1965-04-13 · New York City

At the 7th Annual Grammy Awards on 13 April 1965, Getz/Gilberto won Album of the Year — the first jazz record, and the first by largely Brazilian artists, to take the ceremony's highest honor.

2000 · Rio de Janeiro

In 2000 João Gilberto's 1958 single "Chega de Saudade" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.

1891 · New York City

Opened in 1891 at Seventh Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan, Carnegie Hall is among the most prestigious concert venues in the world.

1958 · Rio de Janeiro

A narrow dead-end alley off Copacabana lined with small nightclubs, the Beco das Garrafas ("Alley of the Bottles") was the incubator of bossa nova's instrumental scene around the late 1950s and early 1960s.