Joao Gilberto: Bossa nova master who crystallised the genre’s breezy, intimate sound

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Brazilian guitarist and singer Joao Gilberto helped to define the subtle, swaying and quietly sensuous style of music known as bossa nova, which became a worldwide craze in the 1960s. His 1958 recording of Jobim’s “Chega de Saudade”, sung in an intimate style without vibrato, became Gilberto’s signature tune and launched the bossa nova movement. Singing in Portuguese, he conveyed a mood of both longing and regret in the lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes, roughly translated, in part, as: “But if she comes back, if she comes back/ What a beautiful thing, what a crazy thing/ For there are less fish swimming in the sea/ Than the kisses I’ll give you.” Derived from Brazil’s traditional samba music and the melodic cool jazz of the 1950s, bossa nova gained further exposure in a 1959 film, Black Orpheus, with a soundtrack by Jobim and Luiz Bonfa. Several other composers and performers took part in the development of bossa nova, but it didn’t receive its fullest expression until Gilberto’s version of “Chega de Saudade”.