Antonio Adolfo Celebrated “Birth” of Bossa Nova

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Web page on Antonio Adolfo’s Web site)

A little less than a week ago, Brazilian jazz pianist Antonio Adolfo released his latest album, whose full title is BOSSA 65: CELEBRATING CARLOS LYRA & ROBERTO MENESCAL. The first part of that title refers to the fact that Bossa Nova first emerged on the south side of Rio de Janeiro 65 years ago. My guess is that most, if not all, readers will associate Bossa Nova with Antônio Carlos Jobim. However, there were other major composers that contributed to defining and promoting the styles, and two of them are acknowledged by the title of this new album.

As of this writing, the album is available only for MP3 download. The best source for downloading is an Amazon.com Web page. Sadly, that Web page supports only the ten tracks of the album. Fortunately, Adolfo has created a Web page on his own Web site that provides an ample supply of background material, including the composers for each of the tracks, along with seven paragraphs worth of liner notes. According to one of my sources, the album will be available for CD release this coming Friday; but Amazon.com has not made arrangements for pre-orders.

None of the tracks on this new album present a partnership of Lyra and Menescal. Rather, each worked with a lyricist; but, since Adolfo’s album is strictly instrumental (except for his own vocalizing on the first track), the music takes almost full priority over the words! As in the past, Adolfo leads from his piano; and, for the most part, he shares the melodic lines with guitarist Lula Galvao. There is also a generous amount of attention to improvisation.

Those that have followed this site for some time know that I have taken considerable interest in Adolfo’s albums. I particularly enjoy encountering opportunities to get my head around new genres and performance techniques. Since BOSSA 65 provides a “first contact” experience of Bossa Nova styles that were previously unknown to me, I am more than delighted to add this album to my collection and explore the efforts of composers whose names were entirely new to me.