Come on, let's fly down to Rio de Janeiro. Between 1956 and 1963, the bossa nova emerged from the small clubs in Copacabana and flourished worldwide. Then came the Brazilian military coup in April 1964, which ended one of modern music's most potent and sensual genres. Several of the bossa nova's most important composers left the country for the U.S., including Antonio Carlos Jobim and Sergio Mendes. Those who remained found an apprehensive, frightened country for whom the gentle, charming bossa nova no longer made sense. The military regime would remain in power until 1985.
Here's Australian director Greg Appel's The Sound That Seduced the World (2008), a delicious, hour-long documentary on the bossa nova's emergence and legacy...
