Brazilian Music

Sergio Mendes & the Brazil 66 is a Grammy award winning musician that composes music in a variety of different styles including bossa nova and samba.

Luiz Bonfa is a very well known Brazilian composer and is most noted and respected for the work that he did on the film Black Orpheus.

Rosa Passos is a cool and soulful bossa nova singer that has carried the sound into the new age.  She is trendy and exciting and reminds me of a modern day Nat King Cole with the rhythms and ebs and flows of her voice.

Walter Wanderly was born in Recife, Brazil and is best known for his skills on the organ, piano and his excellent lounge and bossa nova music. In the 1960s he recorded three albums on the Verve record label.

The albums titled, “Rainforest“, “Cheganca” and “A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness” were all recorded in the United States. Walter received major success but has since died of cancer in 1986.

 Fransisco Buarque de Hollanda is better known to his fans as Chico Buarque. He is a great signer, musician and writer and his music is bets known for its commentary on Brazil’s social, economic anc cultural reality.

Astrud Gilberto is a fantastic Brazilian artist that creates brilliant music in the Bossa Nova, Latin Jazz and Brazilian Jazz styles. She’s best known for her Grammy Award winning song, “The Girl From Ipanema.” 

She has recorded and performed with such greats as Stan Getz and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Enjoy one of my favorite songs by her, Agua De Beber.

Maria Rita’s first CD self-titled Maria Rita launched her career,especially with the hit La Festa. Since 2003 she had produced 3 albums which have all gone platinum. She puts her own flavor on Brazilian Jazz infusing legends like Ella Fitzgerald into her work.

According to music scholars, the Brazilian music genre, Bossa Nova was born in the apartment of Nara Leao where she frequently held jam sessions. .
Endowed with a talent for spotting new composers, Nara launched several songwriters by lending her voice to songs that were turned into big hits, like “Pedro Pedreiro”, “Olê Olá” (both by Chico Buarque), “Maria Moita” (Carlos Lyra/ Vinicius), “Corisco” (Sergio Ricardo/ Glauber Rocha), “Esse Mundo É Meu” (Sergio Ricardo), “Maria Joana”, “Pede Passagem” (Sidney Miller), “Recado” (Casquinha/ Paulinho da Viola), “Coisas do Mundo, Minha Nega” (Paulinho da Viola), “João e Maria” (Sivuca/ Chico Buarque), “Com Açúcar, com Afeto” (Chico Buarque), “Apanhei-te Cavaquinho” (Ernesto Nazareth/ Nara Leão). She also recorded basically all of the bossa nova classics.