All language subtitles for BBC.The.Girl.from.Ipanema.720p.HDTV.x264.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

SONG: The Girl From Ipanema

# Tall and tan and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema
goes walking and

# When she passes
each one she passes goes

# "Ah..."

# When she walks, she's like a samba

# That swings so cool
and sways so gently that

# When she passes,
each one she passes goes

# "Ah..." #

The Girl From Ipanema. Nothing says
Rio de Janeiro quite like it.

Musical legends from Frank Sinatra
to Amy Winehouse

cut their own versions of the most
famous piece of bossa nova

ever written. And when it was first
a hit back in 1964,

those three sublime minutes
crystallised a vision of Brazil

in the eyes of the rest of the world
that endures to this day.

# But each day when she walks
to the sea

# She looks straight ahead
not at he... #

So I've come here to Rio to explore
the culture and the people

behind the hit song.

It's a journey into a most
extraordinary period

in Brazil's history
when utopian Modernism,

African rhythms and romantic poetry
were channelled by a generation

of Rio natives - Cariocas -
to create bossa nova,

Brazil's first and last truly
international art form.

# Tall and tan and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema
goes walking and

# When she passes
each one she passes goes

# "Ah..."

Bossa nova is the most beautiful
music ever

because it's sophisticated
and also very simple.

We were fighting for a cause, we had
the sensation, we were fighting for,

our cause was to divulge,

to promote this wonderful music
that will save Brazil.

Bossa's a music defined by
its sophistication, but sadly,

now more often heard in a lift
than on the radio.

But I've always loved bossa.

My father was born here in Rio
so I grew up listening to it,

and I've travelled here to Brazil
many times to see and hear it

for myself. There is so much more
to it than its Muzak stereotype,

and it means so much to Brazilians
of all ages.

So join me as I retrace the steps
of the girl from Ipanema

to a golden age of Brazilian music

and the sun, sea and samba
that started it all.

# And when she passes she smiles

# But she doesn't see

# She just doesn't see... #

Any story about Brazilian music
has to start with samba.

In fact, here in Brazil, they say
that music is samba

and samba is God.

It's the music that tells the story
of the Brazilian people,

and it also provides
the pulsing soundtrack

to Rio's famous carnival parades.

UPBEAT MUSIC

Samba is where the soul
of Brazil is.

It's the way Brazil breathes,
it's the way Brazil walks,

it's the heartbeat of Brazil.

Samba is as old as Brazil itself.

Based on rhythms brought to the
continent by West African slaves

in the 16th century, it took hold
as a truly Brazilian rhythm

in the 1930s under the nationalist
dictator Getulio Vargas.

He used the carnival parades
to promote his policy

of racial democracy,

unifying the diverse population
through song and dance.

And carnival still has
that effect today.

So samba means carnival,
it means party.

Tell us how people behave
when they hear a samba.

Bossa nova feels very calm compared
to samba but is there some link?

You can see why the Brazilians love
samba. I mean, what's not to like?

But all this, the drums and
the noise and the singing

and all the general madness is
a million miles away from the soft,

sophisticated tones of bossa nova.

They may have come from
the same place,

but bossa nova was a child of its
time, and that time was the 1950s.

REPORTER: 'Yes, it's the most
famous beach in the world,

'Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro,

'the city where the tango and
the samba and the prettiest girls

'in the world come from.'

Bossa nova captured the mood of a
special moment in Brazil's history.

The demise of President Vargas
in 1954

called an end to 25 years of strict
state control

and gave way to a democratic,
outward-looking Brazil

with its sights set on becoming
a modern First World nation.

It was beautiful.

It was an emerging time for arts,

for film, for many things.

It was like a promise

of a new country, new life.

NEWSREADER: Brazil's president
elect, Juscelino Kubitschek,

declares putting Brazil on the map
will be the biggest operation

of his career.

We had this great president
in this Kubitschek.

JK was his nickname.

We used to call
the President bossa nova.

Yeah, because he was always smiling.

He loves music.

People loved him, he was a democrat.

He started to build cars

and industries.

He was a visionary.

"We will build a new capital
in four years."

And they did it.

After centuries of colonial rule
and hard-line dictatorships,

Kubitschek's promise of
50 years' development in five,

epitomised by the audacity of
the brand-new capital, Brasilia,

inspired hope for a new start
for Brazil.

And, as if life couldn't get
any better,

the national football team
were on top of the world.

1958, miraculously, Brazil
won the World Cup in Sweden.

And with a generation
with Pele, Garrincha,

the greatest football players,

they marvelled the world with it.

They were not only playing football,

they were artists, they were
dancers, they were magicians.

And that, in Brazil, had a strong
effect on the Brazilian soul.

"We're the best."

And the bossa nova comes as the
perfect soundtrack of this period

of Brazilian life - we were happy.

The soundtrack to this golden era
would be written by a generation

of middle-class kids coming of age
in the beachfront apartment blocks

of Copacabana and Ipanema.

Guitar-mad Carlos Lyra
and Roberto Menescal,

jobbing night-time pianist
Tom Jobim,

keen young singer Nara Leao

and awkward troubadour Joao Gilberto

enjoyed a charmed lifestyle
and bonded over their desire

for a modern Brazilian sound
to call their own.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

The music was that kind of thing,

"Waiter, bring me another glass
because that woman just...

"found herself a lover and I'm here
suffering with this sentimental..."

All the lyrics were about
adultery, you know.

It was horrible.

APPLAUSE

Running a mile from their parents'
sorrowful samba-canao,

Rio's hip teens fell in love
with American cool jazz.

The West Coast jazz, I loved it.

Stan Kenton, Gerry Mulligan,
Shorty Rogers,

Barney Kessel.

Me and Roberto Menescal used to
listen to Barney Kessel

day and night. We were
very impressed by that.

The group would meet in the family
home of young singer Nara Leao

This intimate environment
set the tone

for the style of music they played.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Everybody barefoot,

drinking whiskey

and smoking a lot.

And everybody...
The guitar will circulate

and everyone will show
his new songs.

I would be here, you would be there,
Menescal there...

and a piano here, guitar...

and then I had to play to you
my new song.

It was difficult because
I have to impress.

To go inside that group,
you have to be good,

or they would think
that you weren't good.

But once you were there, everybody
would help each other.

It soon became an ambitious
songwriters circle,

and in 1958 came the first song to
be dubbed bossa nova, the new beat.

It would also unite on record
the future team behind

The Girl From Ipanema.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

The only place to come in Rio to get
more info on this seminal song

is the record shop-cum-library
cum-bossa nova shrine

run by Carlos Alberto Afonso.

The first document of music,
of course,

phonographic documents
of bossa nova history,

one recording from July 10, '58.

The first moment with the bossa
nova seed is one recording

with Joao Gilberto,
the god, number one,

playing and singing
and the orchestra

of the second god of bossa nova,

Antonio Carlos Jobim or Tom Jobim.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

When I heard this song,
it was something...

Something happened in my heart
and I said, "What is that?"

Because it was so unusual,
the way he sings,

the way the beat and the music,
everything, you know?

I can remember exactly when I heard
Joao Gilberto.

I was in a party

and I was dating
a very beautiful girl.

I remember I said,
"My God, what is that?"

Even if I had influence of many
other kinds of music,

when bossa nova, I heard this,

I said, "My God!"
I was under the impact.

Something of an outsider,

Joao Gilberto was from the northern
state of Bahia

and was steeped in that region's
African samba rhythms.

This deep knowledge was always
welcome at the jam sessions in Rio,

even if Joao himself
was a bit of a loner.

But what really marked out the man
who would first perform

The Girl From Ipanema was his
new twist on the samba rhythm,

which became known
as the bossa beat.

He listened to the samba,
played by the samba schools,

500 percussionists walking in
procession

and playing that groove...

SHE MIMICS DRUMBEAT

Really kind of explosive sounds.

Irresistible sound.

He just heard that and just took

the essential element of it

and created this groove
that he could play

with his right hand on the guitar.

And that's, you know,
that was genius.

Joao Gilberto used to play
like that.

And used to play with the five
fingers

in a strange way, this way.

And he could swing with that way.

I was amazed with the way
he could play.

So did you and Roberto Menescal then
try and sort of imitate that way?

We all tried to copy that

cos that was the way
of playing bossa nova.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Gilberto's playing style
was a revelation.

But he also brought an attention to
detail bordering on the obsessive.

For him, it has to be that
perfection, like Flaubert.

He would roll on the floor
in search of the right word.

The same thing with Joao Gilberto,

and the same thing for anybody
who considers himself bossa nova.

He has to have the right thing,

the right touch because otherwise
you don't have art.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Samba is the rhythm,

bossa nova is the way
to play this song -

sweet, kind.

Intimate of voice,

minimalistic behaviour
of the instruments.

I call the bossa nova
with one name -

Mona Lisa bossa nova. Yeah!

Same artistic perspective
of Renaissance art.

Looking for the formal perfection

through the simple.

Just the necessary, no more.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Bossa nova is very romantic.

Very romantic, always.

But the romance was always very
light, very cool, never aggressive.

Like singing in the ears of a woman.

Never screaming.

SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

The song was like meditation, you
know, you get inside, you know,

it's not so extrovert,
it's coming in, it's introverted,

it's like with yourself.

SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

The art of bossa nova relied as much
upon its sophisticated harmonies

and catchy melodies as it did
the intimate performance style.

And the master composer and linchpin
of the early scene

was Antonio Carlos or "Tom" Jobim.

I'm travelling three hours north of
Rio into the mountains to visit

the Jobim family's rustic
country retreat.

It's out here in the wilderness

that Jobim wrote some of
his best-known songs.

So this is it, your grandfather's
favourite place.

Favourite place in the world.

So how often would he come up here?

Oh, he would stay months at a time,
writing songs every morning.

What did he love about this place,
why did he always want to come up?

All the birds, he knew all the birds
by the scientific name, you know.

And the melodies,
which ones were doing,

and writing the songs together.

And from here he would use
the whistle of the hunters,

to call the female or the male
from the outside of the river.

So this is amazing.
Yeah. Palm trees.

Very nice. The monkeys
jump from tree to tree.

My music comes from this...

environment here, you know,

the rain, the sun, the trees,

the birds, the mountains, the rocks.

Beautiful.

He loved life.

And those guys, they were all
like that, they were bohemian,

they enjoyed life, they enjoyed
beauty, they were into beauty.

So this is the studio...
where it all happened.

Yes, his piano, upright piano,
would be here with a bust of Chopin

and some pictures of family there.

And he would study here
in the morning,

looking at the forest there...

and write all the songs.

He played at night,

like a pianist in bars.

And that was, for a while,

was not easy...not an easy living.

He wanted to be a classical pianist.

So he studied Rachmaninoff -

he loved Stravinsky,

Chopin a lot -

and began writing arrangements.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Jobim, he innovated in

harmonic language what is possible.

He was a poet of harmony,

by putting chords or sounds together

that nobody thought would sound
beautiful together,

and he knew how to do that.

He would also link them together

with these melodies that were
out of heaven.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

He created a new grammar
or vocabulary of harmony,

something that inspires musicians,

especially jazz musicians,
all over the world.

By the end of the 1950s,
a whole new scene was emerging here

in the beachfront South Zone area
of Rio.

As the major players brought bossa
out of their apartments

and into the world, their new sound,
their new way of playing,

found their home in a loose network
of small clubs and bars,

most famously here in Bottle Alley.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

The development of bossa nova,

the promotion of it,

was done in this small nightclub

that can hold 40, 50 people,

very tiny tables.

But you could listen to
Tom Jobim, to Joao Gilberto.

They could almost avoid
amplification,

that was beautiful that time.

So, Sergio, when Bottles Bar was
first opened in the 1950s and '60s,

it was THE place to come, wasn't it?

So the stars of stage and screen
were now enjoying the new beat,

alongside the cafe crowd in Rio,

and now they could also take home
bossa nova on vinyl,

as the music business
rushed to release albums

by all the original gang.

Even the record covers
had their own, new aesthetic,

in keeping with the cool,
minimalism of the movement.

And in spring 1961,

a group of respected American jazz
musicians touched down in Brazil

as part of a state-sponsored
goodwill tour, and their interest

in the new scene ran deeper
than just a good night out.

All the bossa boys were listening to
American jazz, but what they didn't

realise was that the big names
in American jazz

were listing to them, too, and they
loved what they were hearing.

Stars like Charlie Byrd and
Gerry Mulligan flew down here

to Rio to visit and to play,

and the musical friendships that
were born then would catapult

bossa nova onto the world stage.

When we talk about the classic
moment when bossa nova

caught the attention of the jazz
musicians up in the States,

what did they like about it,

what was it about bossa nova
that made them sit up?

I think there are...

musical elements that are very
common to both languages.

The first one is melody.

Because when you put it in relation
to the harmony,

they become really complex notes,

chords that a jazz player
will go, "Yes, that's what I need."

You know, it's juicy.

They identified rhythm cos it has
very much of what they gave to us,

especially the harmony.

The harmony, it's all from
the American jazz.

Guitarist Charlie Byrd wasted no
time in recording his own versions

of the bossa nova he heard in Rio,

teaming up with the legendary
saxophonist Stan Getz

on the album Jazz Samba.

Released in April '62,

it sold half a million copies
in 18 months

and became the only jazz album ever

to hit number one on
the Billboard pop chart,

and the Tom Jobim tune Desafinado
led the charge in the hit parade.

Here you have a mystery.
The public really went for this.

It's jazz but I guess I'll use
the word "accessible."

It's the melody, even though
it's complex, is still singable,

which is sort of amazing.

It's not that easy,
it's not Do Re Mi.

That may have been the reason that,

wow, here's an audience who was
looking for something like that.

And, interestingly enough,
it wasn't vocal at the time,

Desafinado was
an instrumental record

who hit way up in the top
of the pop charts.

That's amazing
in the music business.

Spying an opportunity after
Desafinado's success,

record exec Sidney Frey
hatched a plan

to introduce bossa's originators
to the US market.

REPORTER: In music, if you want to
start a movement, you hire a hall,

Carnegie Hall, to spread the word
and the song.

One of the record executives had
this idea to do a concert

at Carnegie Hall, really presenting
Brazilian musicians.

That was their real entryway

into what becomes
an international market.

The importance of this opportunity
was almost lost

on the more laid-back members
of the scene back in Rio.

I'd never had been to the States
before and I was amazed, you know,

the autumn in New York,
you know, it's a beautiful season.

We went to the Carnegie Hall
and they were lines of people,

it was crowded.
Carnegie Hall was crowded.

And it was full of important
musicians in the audience.

And we realised that something
important was happening.

REPORTER: This was the official
send-off for bossa nova.

But the movement was already
on its way and it's been going

all the stronger since.

In the record shops,
racks full of bossa nova

that swings like Castro-Neves and
some that's sweet and lyrical.

In either form, bossa nova is in.

# Blame it on the bossa nova

# With its magic spell... #

Some people just got on
the bandwagon, didn't they?

Yes. The bossa nova dance craze,
for instance, which never existed.

What was that?
I have no idea.

But you had to have a dance because
Latin music was all about dancing.

Now, samba is a dance, bossa nova,
as far as I know, never was.

With the bossa nova,

the basic step is taken to the side
with a little twist motion.

# Blame it on the bossa nova

# With its magic spell... #

Bossa nova became so popular,

advertising just love it.

Everything was bossa nova.
"Oh, it is a new building,

"buy the new building
and the apartments,

"they are the bossa nova apartment."

They said, "Oh, you buy
the new suit, bossa nova suit."

Bossa nova icebox,
bossa nova lawyers.

THEY LAUGH

Many things. And now I heard here
on the radio the bossa nova haircut,

bossa nova shoes.

This is not very good for the music.

Madison Avenue's version of bossa
was but the latest fad

aimed squarely at a middle-class
America and its preconceptions

about life south of the border.

Brazil represents,
for the United States,

a utopian other, so Rio,

the most beautiful city
in the world.

Brazilian culture, sensual,
uninhibited,

notions of beauty are paramount.

And when Jobim, Gilberto and
Stan Getz got it together

in a New York recording studio
in the spring of 1963,

the song Jobim pulled
from his suitcase

brought this fantasy to life

in the form of
The Girl From Ipanema.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

He and his writing partner,
Vinicius de Moraes,

had composed the song
at least a year earlier

on a typically relaxed day
by the beach.

Vinicius de Moraes, you know,

he wrote the lyrics
and I wrote the music.

We used to drink some draught,
you know,

and watch the girls
going to the sea, to the beach.

Nobody knew who she was...

..but she was so beautiful
that everybody gasped.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

The beautiful girl immortalised
in the song had a name,

Helo Pinheiro,

and 50 years on, she's still turning
heads on her way to the beach.

The two men, Tom Jobim
and Vinicius de Moraes,

they are sitting at the bar,

the snack bar,
and I was walking to the beach

and one told to him,

"Oh, I love the girl.
All the time she passes here."

And when I passed,

"I am going to make
a song for this girl."

The Girl From Ipanema comes,

it changed my life
because it make me famous.

Helo Pinheiro became a symbol of
the quintessential Rio beach girl,

but also represented
something deeper

for lyricist Vinicius de Moraes,

a spiritual godfather
to the bossa generation.

He was a great friend,
was a great man.

Very cultured, very warm,

and women loved him.

And believe me, he was short, bald,
women just fell at his feet.

It was incredible.

THEY SING IN OWN LANGUAGE

He was a gentleman and he was
raised to be like that,

to believe that a woman should
be put on a higher ground,

to be adored and admired,

and made for love and forgiveness.

He wrote that, actually.

Yes, he probably needed a lot of
forgiveness during his life.

THEY LAUGH

Oh, yeah, definitely.

But, you know, how could you not
forgive him? He was adorable.

A true bohemian, by the time the
Bard of bossa began writing songs,

he'd already led a colourful life
as a diplomat and man of letters.

He was a very important
romantic poet.

One of the most important poets
in Brazil.

And then he became a lyricist.

And he was one of the greatest
lyricist in bossa nova.

He was the first Brazilian
to have a scholarship

granted by Oxford University.

And he was very fond of
Shakespearean poetry.

The best Vinicius moments,
you have things like,

"Que coisa mais bonita voce ser,"

"What a beautiful thing you are."

So simple things,

and Shakespeare reached it in Romeo
And Juliet or Antony And Cleopatra.

Very simple things
but very beautiful things.

Vinicius ensured the words
in bossa nova

were taken as seriously
as the music.

And the themes of love,
the smile and the flower

became something of a manifesto
for the genre.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

However, the English-speaking
audience were none the wiser.

That is until the recording
of The Girl From Ipanema.

SINGING IN OWN LANGUAGE

Back in New York,

crack lyricist Norman Gimbel
had been enlisted to translate

the Portuguese lyrics into English.

Best known for his subsequent hits
Killing Me Softly

and the Happy Days theme tune...

# These days are ours

# Happy and free
Those happy days

# These days are ours... #

His interpretation of Garota de
Ipanema cuts to the chase.

The first Portuguese lyrics,
first couple lines, are...

"Olha que coisa mais linda,
cheio de graca,"

which literally is,

"Look at this beautiful thing,
full of grace."

That's what it is literally.

In English it's, "Tall and tan
and young and lovely,

"the girl from Ipanema."
So it's very different.

Antonio Carlos Jobim
didn't like the translation.

He was completely furious

with the words they put in English,

describing physically the girl

and not describing the impression

of something full of grace
that walks by.

When you say full of grace,

you are referring to
Our Lady of Mercy

and you need a woman to be
your saviour.

But when you say tall
and tanned and young,

you are talking about a beauty
contest, it's so vulgar.

All objections aside, it was decided
that at least one verse in English

would be a good idea after Joao
Gilberto had kicked off the song

in Portuguese.

Step forward Joao's wife,
Astrud Gilberto.

# Tall and tan
and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema
goes walking

# And when she passes
each one she passes goes

# "Ah..." #

Astrud, who had, as far as I know,

didn't really have a career here
at that point,

she was the only one
who could speak English,

but she sings it in this
karaoke style,

which is intimate and simple,

no vibrato.

Articulation is gorgeous,
she's swinging, in her way.

# But each day
when she walks to the sea

# She looks straight ahead
not at he... #

It was so lovely. She was
a girl from Ipanema singing.

She was the way...

Nothing...
You know, nothing...

Very natural singing.

# When she passes
each one she passes goes

# "Ah..." #

Seduced by Astrud's voice, producer
Creed Taylor made a decisive call

when it came to mastering
the single.

The producer heard her singing

and then they took
Joao Gilberto out,

they put only
Astrud Gilberto singing.

# Oh

# But he watches so sadly

# How can he tell her
he loves her? #

And with that, what started as
a track on a Brazilian jazz album,

sung in Portuguese by a man,

became a pop single performed by
a woman in English

but with an exotic accent.

# She looks straight ahead
not at he

# Tall and tanned and young
and lovely... #

This transformed The Girl
From Ipanema's global appeal.

That accented voice

is something that becomes kind of
marketable for the record company.

We have to take into account not
just a sonic quality of her voice

but all that Brazil represents.

There is a lot of the foreign...

look into Brazil that you get
through that version.

Tall and tanned and young
and lovely -

the exotic.

It is just an irresistible
sort of image, isn't it?

And it allows...

everyone abroad to project,
especially men,

their fantasies about this woman,

this Brazilian woman.

# Tall and tan
and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema goes walking

# And when she passes, he smiles

# But she doesn't see

# She just doesn't see... #

The song was an
international smash hit,

rising to the top five
in the Billboard Hot 100

and number one on the easy
listening charts in the States.

It broke the top 30 in the UK

and went on to win the Grammy award
for Record of the Year.

What was your father's reaction to
his song becoming the record

of the year and getting a Grammy
for being the record of the year?

It was a big surprise
because it was a jazz record...

..and never a jazz record
had sold so much.

It's accessible, it swings,
and then it's in English.

That was a genius move.

The public likes it,
the musicians like it.

It's the perfect record.
It's a perfect record.

I think it's a very nice song, I
think it's a very well-written song,

beautiful melody,
and incredible lyrics.

It was like a bossa nova hymn
all over the world.

The Girl From Ipanema
has been recorded over 500 times

by some of the biggest names
in music.

# Tall and tan and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema
goes walking

# When he passes
each girl he passes goes

# "Ah..."

# When she passes
each one she passes goes

# Daboo-du-daa... #

It's believed to be the second-most
recorded popular song

of the 20th century, second only
to the Beatles' Yesterday.

And the Beatles themselves were
honoured at the same Grammy awards

in 1965 for Best New Artist.

Just as The Girl From Ipanema broke
bossa nova into the mainstream,

the Brits arrived on American turf
with their own new beat,

rendering all that came before
yesterday's music.

However, this changing of the guard
on the front line of pop was trivial

compared to the real invasion
going on back home in Rio.

It was an impact for us.

Everything has changed.
Freedom of the press - over.

The bossa nova President
Kubitschek's successors

had begun to lean radically
towards communist regimes.

On April 1st, 1964,

a US-backed military coup

brutally called time on Brazil's
experiment with democracy.

When the military came in
'64 and took power,

nobody knew it was going to become
so bloody and dangerous.

There were people being taken
to prison, being tortured,

artists being censored.

Suddenly, you know, we lived under

a very, very oppressive
dictatorship.

Everybody was afraid to say anything
because maybe some neighbour...

This kind of crazy thing that,
for Rio, Brazil, it was crazy.

We were persecuted. There were
announcements on the radio -

"Don't ever play
Antonio Carlos Jobim."

They put him on the blacklist.

SHE SINGS IN OWN LANGUAGE

Bossa nova's fixation on romantic
themes and its air of refinement,

which so fitted the optimism
of the Kubitschek era,

was now at odds with
the mood of the nation.

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The young generations, like my own,

a lot of people thought bossa nova
was not reflecting any more

the situation of the country
because it was too light,

and the situation was too heavy.

So all of a sudden
that was old news.

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Some people carried on writing,
you know,

love songs and ignoring everything
else, as always, of course.

But some people thought,
no, no, no, we can't, we have to,

we have to try and do what we can,
using music perhaps, let's try.

There was a big split on bossa nova
from that time on.

Menescal stayed on this bossa nova.

Light, jazz, beaches, little boats.

Loving the afternoon.

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But for others,
it was time to take a stand,

and the split deepened
in the bossa generation

when Nara Leao turned her back
on her old crowd by the beach.

She was very outspoken
about bossa nova

and how it was dead and useless...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, very much. They called her
the bossa nova muse.

But being the clever woman she was,

she wouldn't stand
in that role forever,

she was a very political head.

They started to do...

..music and lyrics about peasants,

oppressed people, and all the lyrics
should be aggressive,

more related to our origins.

We should do music for the people.

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Nara Leao was not alone
in her opinion.

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And as the counterculture kicked in
hard at the end of the decade,

Tropicalia blasted away the quiet
minimalism of bossa with a heady mix

of rock and roll and psychedelia.

Bossa nova was nothing any more,

was completely despicable,

was corny, was cheesy, was...

something very old.

And the great bossa nova stars,

Jobim, Joao Gilberto,
they moved to the US.

Insulated from the turbulent times
back home, bossa nova in the US

had matured like a fine wine
into a grown-up music for

the middle classes enjoying their
creature comforts in the suburbs.

The instrument - guitar.
The beat - bossa nova.

The artist - Antonio Carlos Jobim.

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For Jobim, that was the key
to the world.

For Frank Sinatra to come along
and say, "Stop everything,

"it's bossa nova, it's Jobim,"

that's like God coming down
and saying,

"This I'm going to put my
signature on." That's a big deal.

Tom Jobim settled into his new
position alongside Ol' Blue Eyes

with consummate ease. The album
they recorded together in 1967

is widely regarded as one of
Sinatra's finest,

and completed bossa nova's induction

to the great American song book.

And, of course, in this
national TV special,

The Girl From Ipanema
was the jewel of the set list.

# Tall and tan and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema
goes walking and

# When she passes
each one she passes goes

# "Ah..."

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I love that beautiful performance
they did live, playing there,

in front with the suits.

And smoking the cigarette,
Sinatra is smoking and singing.

Can you believe this?

My grandfather is playing the guitar
because he was basically

the piano player
but he learned the guitar.

And Sinatra wanted to have
on the album the guitar

because it looks more Latin,
so he asked for it.

So he had to study a little more.

Whatever Sinatra asks you to do,
you have to do.

BOTH: # But each day
when she walks to the sea

# She looks straight ahead
not at me... #

Wow. Can't believe it.

I still can't believe it.

This is, in a sense,
even more of an arrival

into world musical culture
than getting invited

to perform at Carnegie Hall.
This is the real arrival for Jobim.

This is the mark that
he is a major composer.

I think he was valued in America.

I don't think the bossa nova people
are valued enough in Brazil.

They would talk about bossa nova,
even in a dismissive way, like, oh,

you know, that's boring,
that's over.

"They sold out to America,"
was the reaction in Brazil.

Very Brazilian...

Jobim had a phrase, in Brazil...

..success is a personal offence.

It was so criticised in Brazil.

This poor man, this genius.

Few Brazilians have made so much
for this country than Jobim.

In just a few years, bossa nova
had gone mainstream,

growing up from
an intimate local beat

into an internationally renowned
repertoire of popular standards.

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I've been in Romania and Russia,

so faraway places

and always the same.

It's always...

full of people, sold out.

And in Japan they are crazy about
bossa nova.

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You go anywhere in the world

and you can hear bossa nova
in major concert halls.

I've seen Joao Gilberto
in Carnegie Hall.

It's the same repertoire being
performed in more or less

the same way that it has been
for the past 50 years.

In this sense, bossa nova can be
deemed a classical music.

Bossa nova, to me, is art,

I separate it,
I make a distinction there.

The music that's big in Brazil
nowadays is the entertainment music.

It's music done for people
to dance to, to dance,

to enjoy carnival,

it's the big masses sort of music.

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I love entertainment,

but if I want to kind of be quiet
and be taken somewhere else,

I need the right music for it,
and it's not going to be...

the entertainment music, it's art,
I want to go somewhere,

it takes me somewhere.

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Wherever you are in the world,

the place bossa nova will always
transport you to is Rio,

the birthplace,

where for many years this precious
music was all but forgotten.

But slowly Brazil has begun to value
its greatest cultural export

and celebrate bossa's
founding fathers.

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These heroes of bossa nova became...

part of our landscape

nowadays in Rio.

Vinicius de Moraes is a street
in Ipanema.

The neighbourhood celebrated
his wonderful song.

And Tom Jobim is our main airport.

Now, we have both

as part of our sentimental
and geographical landscape.

And even away from the beachfront
bars and tourist attractions,

the irrepressible sound of The Girl
From Ipanema can still be heard.

# Tall and tan and young and lovely

# The girl from Ipanema
goes walking and

# When she passes
each guy she passes goes

# "Ah..."

I've been here in Rio for a week and
I've seen for myself the magic

that inspired bossa nova.

Of course, we can't compare today
with the golden age

of the late 1950s and early '60s

when life here in Rio was good
and the whole world fell in love

with that idyllic image of Brazil

as painted by the song
The Girl From Ipanema.

# But each day
when she walks to the sea

# She looks straight ahead
not at me... #

You know what? That's OK because
that idyllic image still exists.

You can go down to the beach any day
of the week and see your very own

girl from Ipanema making her way
to the white sand

and the clear blue sea.

And the music lives on,

in places like this, high up
in the hills above the beach,

and it lives on in the hearts
of the people here

because bossa nova is the soundtrack
to that ideal version of Brazil.

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