Extremely thoughtful, well-organized well-informed. Worth reading cover to cover. The only non-guitar bossa nova book I’ve seen that is authentically Brazilian (as far as is possible on the piano–not the main rhythm instrument of boss nova)..
If you jazz cats out there think you know about bossa nova, think again It’s not “Latin jazz” (= Cuban + water). Bossa is about syncopated rhythms and a subtle ambiguity between 2 and 4 feel. Unlike in a Cuban clave, the patterns change. As in samba, notes can begin on a weak beat or weak part of a beat and tie over a bar line. No matter how lyrical the melody and smooth the delivery, samba is always just beneath the surface.
For those who may not know: Bossa Nova was invented in Rio de Janeiro around 1958 as guitar-based vocal music. The inventors were singer and guitarist Joao Gilberto (originally from Bahia) and pianist and guitarist Antonio Carlos “Tom” Jobim. Gilberto devised a way to play samba rhythms on guitar, and Jobim (trained in classical music) supplied the harmony–which he borrowed from Debussy and Ravel. It was ultra-sophisticated urban folk music, that quickly became radio hits, first in Brazil and later around the world.
Run the clock forward to 1964: Stan Getz wanted a more authentic Brazilian sound then he got from his first try at bossa nova with Charlie Byrd, *Jazz Samba*. So for his next record, *Getz/Gilberto*, he made sure he was the only non-Brazilian in the band! He not only flew up Joao Gilberto from Brazil, but also Tom Jobim, Sebatiao Neto, Miltion Banana, and even Joao’s wife, Astrud (not yet a professional singer).
Fortunately, today it not necessary to got this extreme—thanks to the good instructional books by Brazilians or people who have lived in Brazil that have become available in English in the last decade. *Piano Bossa Nova* is an important addition to that trove.
The author, Turi Collura, taught at FAMES in Brazil from 2003-2012, and frequently performs with Brazilians. It’s not easy to arrange guitar-based music for the piano, but he manages to do it well. His harmonies are a bit more jazz-like than Jobim’s (who sprinkled in some triads, and also borrow non-functional parallelism from Debusy), but more Brazilian than what you’ll see in the *Real Book* versions (arranged by Berklee students in the 1970s). But the main reason to buy this book is for the instruction on rhythm and hints on chord voicing.
When Jobim played with Joao Gilberto, it was Gilberto’s guitar that played the chords, not the piano. This book goes along way toward putting the piano back in the game without sacrificing authenticy or turning the music into American jazz. Collura has paid his dues and done his homework, and it really shows. His original compositions in the examples and exrcises are charming (unlike some other method books!), illustrate the points he is making, and provide material for practice.
To see all the possible rhythmic variations, one still needs to go to a guitar book. such as Carlos Arana’s *Bossa Nova Guitar* and his *Brazilian Rhythms for Guitar* (both on Amazon). The latter teaches limb independence as it would be taught to a drummer: starting with the easiest combinations (shaker and voice) and progressing to the guitarist’s right hand fingers vs. thumb. A pianist needs right and left hand independence, which is even tougher. Did I remember to say these are *highly syncopated* patterns? 🙂
Even a modest improvement in rhythm will result in a big improvement in the music. The same goes for harmony. The less comfortable a player feels with this material, the more he or she has to gain from this book and the faster he or she will see results. No one should be scared off by the difficulty: Jobim was classically-trained and a professional, but many of the bossa novistas weren’t. Joao Gilberto was largely self-taught and started performing as an amateur. Ane Jobim became famous for his “one finger” piano solos.
The smattering of theory in the book is as important as the exercises (fix your technique and you fix one thing, but fix your hearing and your thinking and you fix many things). For example, the classification of diminished chords into three groups (p. 15) alone is worth the price of the book. There are only 3 dim chords to learn, not 12. The table of variant chord symbols on p. 13 addresses one practical difficulty of popular music that is rarely mentioned: there is no single, standard system of chord symbols. On almost every page, the author tries to remove obstacles and make the student’s task easier.
It’s amazing how much good information and valuable tips are packed into this books 74 pages. It’s not the last word on the subject by a long shot, but it’s enough to get anyone started and keep them going for a long time.
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