Putumayo Presents Bossa Nova: A Collection Filled With Enchanting Melodies

Putumayo Presents Bossa Nova Features a New Generation of Musicians Who Are Finding Inspiration in a Classic Brazilian Sound

On Friday, August 4, 2023 Putumayo will release Putumayo Presents Bossa Nova, a CD and digital collection filled with enchanting melodies and breezy rhythms that will transport listeners to the romantic beaches of Brazil. One of the world’s most recognizable music forms, bossa nova is a captivating blend of samba with jazz that emerged in Brazil in the late 1950s, became world-renowned in the early 1960s and went on to influence popular music around the globe.

Almost 70 years after its birth, the sultry and sophisticated sound of bossa nova continues to inspire a young generation of musicians in Brazil and beyond. Putumayo Presents Bossa Nova features 10 artists who weren’t even born when bossa nova first started drifting out of cafés and nightclubs along Rio’s Copacabana beach in the 1950s but who find the style just as cool and contemporary as it was back then.

The collection opens with Brazilian singer Ana Caram‘s rendition of the Kenny Dorham jazz standard “Blue Bossa.” Caram, who at the beginning of her career received advice from one of bossa nova’s founding fathers, Antônio Carlos Jobim, pays tribute to the influential marriage of Brazilian music and American jazz that helped it permeate the global soundscape. Rio native Mauricio Pessoa follows with his original composition “Quando Falas Coração” (When My Heart Speaks), a soft and introspective song that is a worthy addition to bossa nova’s ever-expanding repertoire. Pessoa, along with Berlin-based singer YVY MARAEY, who contributes a stunning version of Beth Carvalho’s “Dança de Solidao,” are young up-and-coming voices who demonstrate bossa nova’senduring hipness to Gen Z musicians.

Putumayo’s Bossa Nova offers an opportunity to discover exceptional talents who may not be as widely known in the international scene but are highly respected among Brazilian music aficionados. Montreal-based Brazilian singer Bïa, Flávia Dantas from Rio, Salvador’s Péri, and Tamy, from the state of Espirito Santos north of Rio, have all helped keep bossa nova thriving over the past decade or more.

Putumayo Presents Bossa Nova also features a few non-Brazilian artists who have incorporated bossa nova into their artistic palettes. French singer and actress Clara Bellar, with the accompaniment of bossa nova royalty Dori Caymmi, offers a moving version of samba icon Clara Nunes’s classic “Canto das Três Raças” (Song of the Three Races). Canadian singer Amanda Martínez has family roots in Mexico and South Africa, and her musical influences come from across Latin America. Martínez performs “Manhã de Carnival” (Carnival Morning), a song from the 1959 Oscar-winning film Black Orpheus that was one of the first bossa nova songs to become popular outside of Brazil. Orquestra Bamba Social is a big band based in Portugal devoted to Brazilian styles. Here they offer “Começa com S” (Starts with S), a tribute to the rhythms of samba that serve as the underpinning of bossa nova.

Putumayo has long had an affinity for Brazilian music and over the past 30 years of the label’s existence has released numerous collections featuring a wide variety of Brazilian styles. Putumayo Presents Bossa Nova is an opportunity to present some of the many contemporary voices that are keeping the heart and soul of bossa nova alive and thriving. These talented young musicians are paying homage to classics and creating new compositions that promise to keep this old “new sound” fresh for years to come.

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