I was on a social forum the other day, where the perpetual discussion about my favorite music genre was raging.
A member of that forum noted that he had been criticized for describing Bossa Nova as jazz, and wondered whether he was in the wrong or right.
I agreed with the vast majority of the responses: Bossa Nova fits very neatly into the jazz genre. You don’t have to get far in the Real Book to find the very first evidence of that in “Blue Bossa” in Book 1.
Of course, there are purists who will argue that the Real Book does not define jazz. And they are right, but for the wrong reasons. Anything is jazz if it is treated as such. In fact, if you scroll through any manuscripts from the 20th Century, what you will find is a treasure of songs, many of which are now considered “jazz standards.”
Is “Over the Rainbow,” for instance, a jazz song? No, it was written, along with many other tunes in that era, as a popular song. That’s right, it was the equivalent of a Taylor Swift single today. (And if you’re following the news, you might have noted there is a new debate on the origins of that song.)
All this debating about what is jazz got me to think about an original Bossa Nova tune I wrote, titled “O Amor é um Milagre” (Love is a Miracle).
Here’s a recent recording:
George Paolini Music 