50 Years of bossa bliss.

Perhaps never in the history of popular culture has a music movement evolved so rapidly and produced such far-ranging influences as Brazil's bossa nova. When it appeared almost magically on university campuses and in the clubs of Rio de Janeiro a half century ago, it sparked a cultural revolution that reverberated throughout Brazil and beyond to virtually every corner of the globe.

The sultry new sound, a stylish modernization of Brazil's earthy samba, emerged just when the country's growing middle class was energized by a widely-held belief that their land was finally on the verge of attaining the international stature it had long been denied. Bossa nova, or the "new thing," as it is loosely translated, became an instant soundtrack for this surge of national optimism. The hip and sunny disposition of the new style quickly seduced an entire generation of young Brazilians eager for a break with the somewhat staid popular music of the era. It also spawned parallel movements that revitalized the arts in the country--from painting, graphic design, and sculpture to theater and film, which was dubbed Cinema Novo. Bossa's vivacious spirit was even reflected in the space age architectural creations of Oscar Niemeyer that began to reshape Brazil's urban skyline.

Two artists, composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and singer/guitarist Joao Gilberto, are universally recognized as bossa's leading figures. Jobim's stunning compositions, with their ingenious mixture of classical and jazz influences, and Gilberto's whispery voice and signature guitar style, which identified the music's rhythmic identity, came to symbolize the core characteristics of bossa. While Jobim and Gilberto were the first to crystallize the stylistic hybrid's melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic ingredients, they were soon joined by dozens of other supremely talented composers, lyricists, singers, arrangers, and instrumentalists whose contributions broadened bossa's focus far beyond the referential touchstone of the Jobim-Gilberto partnership.

Bossa's global reach was astounding. In the US, such classics as Jobim's "Desafinado" and "The Girl from Ipanema" became pop music hits on the radio, earning critical acclaim and Grammy awards while offering the public an exotic and jazzy alternative to the pervading rock music of the day. Dozens of leading jazz instrumentalists and vocalists in the US, Europe, Japan, and other nations embraced the style, producing hundreds of recordings, and making compositions by Jobim, Luiz Bonfa and Marcos Valle, among others, some of the most recorded and performed songs of their time. Bossa also proved to be irresistible to motion picture producers, and soon became a fixture on soundtracks for feature films produced in Hollywood, Paris, Rome, and many other cinematic capitals.

For the past year, Brazil has reveled in the fiftieth anniversary of the advent of bossa and worldwide triumph of its greatest cultural export, treating the genre to an endless series of retrospective concerts, essays, academic discourses, books, and CD reissues. Although the style fell out of fashion in Brazil by the mid 1960s, it began to experience a resurgence of interest in the last decade, thanks to the emergence of a new generation of interpreters. Musicologists still debate over the degree to which bossa was influenced by US jazz, but they agree on one central point: bossa nova, Brazil's greatest cultural export, is here to stay.

Among the hundreds of bossa nova recordings, both historic and contemporary, that are available today from a variety of retail and Internet sources, some are undisputed classics that should form the core of any bossa collection.

Antonio Carlos dobim's 1963 The Composer Plays (Verve) was the international debut of songs that would include the prolific composer's best known standards, including "Meditation," "Corcovado," "One Note Samba," and "Insensatez." The album features Jobim's distinctive single note style of piano playing and orchestrations by Claus Ogerman, the German arranger who would be Jobim's partner on many of his most significant albums. In 1967, Jobim and Ogennan joined Frank Sinatra for a history-making effort, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim (Reprise). Wave (A&M), another 1967 project, is notable for presenting another collection of new standards-to-be, including the title tune and "Triste," as well as the leader's moody vocals and Ogerman's elegant arrangements for strings and horns. In 1974, Jobim collaborated with vocalist Elis Regina on the effervescent Elis & Tom (Philips), which reprised such hits as "Corcovado" and "Fotografia" while showcasing newer works, including "Aguas de Marco." The album is widely considered to be among the most essential recordings of either artist.

Before Jobim and Gilberto went their separate ways, they collaborated on recordings that made bossa history. The most famous of their partnerships is Getz/Gilberto (Verve), the 1963 effort that headlined tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and earned its place in history via the vocal version of "The Girl from Ipanema" by Gilberto's wife Astrud. The session's classic status was underscored by the fact that it was among the very first LPs to be converted to the new digital CD format in the mid 1980s. Since then, the introverted Gilberto has produced a series of low key masterpieces that spotlight his unaffected vocal style and gentle guitar work. Amoroso (Warner Brothers), a 1977 session arranged by Ogerman, features bossa interpretations of an eclectic program that includes the Mexican bolero "Besame mucho" and George Gershwin's standard "'S Wonderful." Gilberto's penchant for songs of Mexican and Cuban origin is evident

on the hard-to-find but indispensible Joao Gilberto en Mexico (PolyGram), a 1974 recording that includes works by Ernesto Lecuona and Agustin Lara. Gilberto's consumate taste is also in evidence on his 1991 release simply titled Joao (Verve), which includes compositions by French and US songwriters in addition to the creations of such Brazilian composers as Noel Rosa and Caetano Veloso.

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Although an untrained vocalist who had scant professional ambitions before the success of "The Girl from Ipanema," Astrud Gilberto produced a series of very popular bossa nova recordings in the 1960s. To many fans, her feathery vocal style was the living personification of bossa's soft-focus quality. Her The Astrud Gilberto Album (Verve) includes a generous sampling of Jobim standards and the presence of the maestro himself.

Nara Leao became one of the first important female vocal interpreters of bossa and was widely known in Brazil as "The Muse of Bossa Nova." Her Dez Anos Depois (Philips), recorded in 1971, is a 24-track feast of well-known bossa treasures, including compositions by Jobim, Carlos Lyra, Baden Powell and Johnny Alf. Leao's distinctive style, a combination of frosty detachment and piercing directness, makes her perfect for such probing Jobim works as the wistful "Sabia." Other vocalists whose early contributions to the bossa movement are worth seeking out include Sylvia Telles, Claudette Soares, and Doris Monteiro.

A key member of an extended family of Rio de Janeiro-based instrumentalists, composers and arrangers who was still in his teens when he started performing bossa nova, guitarist Roberto Menescal composed such enduring bossa hits as "O Barquinho" and "Rio." In the company of such soon-to-be-famous collaborators as pianist Eumir Deodato, he produced a series of classic bossa instrumental combo recordings in the early 1960s, including A Nova Bossa Nova de Roberto Menescal (Elenco). In recent years, he has been particularly active, partnering with such vocalists as Wanda Sa on Swingueira (Albatroz).

Menescal was but one of dozens of young Brazilian instrumentalists who found great success performing bossa nova. Pianist Sergio Mendes was another. His Bossa Rio Sextet included such outstanding jazz soloists as trombonist Raul de Souza and bassist Tiao Neto. The unit's 1963 recording Voce ainda nao ouviu nada (Philips) is one of the finest examples of the jazzier side of bossa, a genre dubbed "samba jazz." Other pioneers of this harder-edged variant of bossa included drummers Milton Banana, Dora Um Romao and Edison Machado, and organist Walter Wanderley, whose 1966 hit album Rain Forest (Verve) included the wildly popular version of composer Marcos Valle's "Summer Samba."

In recent years, a surprisingly diverse array of young artists has put their own distinctive stamp on the bossa nova movement. Lisa Ono, a Japanese Brazilian whose luminous vocals recall those of the late Nara Leao, has produced an ongoing series of bossa-focused releases. Among her many gems is Minha Saudade (Nana), a collaboration with legendary composer and pianist Joao Donato, whose "Amazonas" is a perpetual favorite of bossa aficionados. Celso Fonseca, a singer and composer whose gentle approach pays homage to the style that Joao Gilberto pioneered over 50 years ago, has personally created a substantial body of new bossa works that radiate a fresh attitude while maintaining the sonic feel of the real thing. His Juventude/Slow Motion Bossa Nova (Dubas) is one of several appealing recent releases that verify his deserved stature as a new bossa guru. Meanwhile, Joao's daughter Bebel Gilberto has emerged as the most important star of the "new" bossa nova tradition. Her current release, Momento (Six Degrees), proves that the venerable genre can accommodate and benefit from the introduction of such contemporary production techniques as sampled beats and judiciously employed electronic additives.

Two just-released projects provide further evidence that bossa nova is here to stay. Novas Bossas (Blue Note) features crooner Milton Nascimento in the company of the Jobim Trio, a unit that features the late composer's guitarist son Paulo and grandson Daniel on piano. The program celebrates the artistry of both Jobim and Nascimento, while pianist and singer Eliane Elias focuses on vintage Jobim and Donato as well as North American standards on Bossa Nova Stories (Blue Note). The Sao Paulo native's hypnotic vocals and fluid keyboard work, backed by deftly arranged strings, provides the perfect synthesis of bossa nova's inherent beauty and enduring appeal,

A regular contributor to Americas, Mark Holston recently participated on a panel discussion of the influence of bossa nova at the Tudo e Jazz Festival in Ouro Preto, Brazil.