![]() ![]() ![]() Jobim uses the same quirky little pulse to drive each song-accents on beat 2 and beat 3 and. He's taken jazz chords, samba rhythms, classical guitar, light piano, his own unusual melodic and harmonic sense, put them all together, and come up with something new, fresh, and exciting. But for the most part, bossa nova is his thing. He's had musical ancestors and colleagues. But the man now sitting in Philip's studio, playing piano, Antonio Carlos Jobim, is just such a genius. To actually do it, and do it well-to create a brilliant new genre-that takes genius. how do you invent a whole new genre of music? To know in theory what that looks like is one thing. It's that two percent that makes all the difference.īut still. And that only takes a few little adjustments, in the same way that humans and chimps share 98% the same DNA. It just has to be identifiably different. It doesn't have to be radically different from other genres. Now, you might ask: How the heck does anyone invent a whole new genre of music?įrom a distance, we can guess the answer-you take bits and bobs from pre-existing styles, put them together in a new way, add in a couple of features of your own-and voila! You've just created your own new genre. They're best categorized as belonging to a new genre called bossa nova (literally, "new wave"), developed by Jobim himself, the man playing piano on the sessions, and the man who's written most of the songs on the album. They don't quite sound like samba, either. The songs don't quite sound like standard jazz. Producer Creed and engineer Philip-who has decided to change his last name from Rabinowitz to Ramone-spend that day and the next recording various versions of eight songs. And as a result, much to the delight of young Philip, Verve Records has rented his A & R Studio for this two day project with the Brazilian and American musicians. You never know.Īnd so, the little studio has started to make its mark. Or was it Chet Baker? Or John Coltrane? Rumors have started to fly, but the attraction of them all, to New York musicians, is that if you book a session at Philip's new studio, you might just bump into one of the world's greatest musicians during a break down at Jim & Andy's. Word has it that Charlie Parker had a drink there once. And right next door to the building is Jim & Andy's Bar, a watering hole increasingly popular with musicians in town. That unique sound comes through the microphones just enough to lend a certain character to all the music recorded at the studio. The room itself-precisely because it hasn't been professionally redesigned to deaden or balance the acoustics-retains its natural, idiosyncratic sound. Musicians are starting to book it to make real records.Īfter all, Philip-the house engineer and minority co-owner of the operation-is easy to work with. ![]() This one, at least up until very recently, musicians visit only to record rough, or "demo", versions of their new songs.īut recently, some good records have come out of the spartan little affair in midtown Manhattan. For more polished recordings, musicians go to one of New York's fancier recording studios-the kind with top-of-the-line recording machines, dozens of mics, strategically built-in sound baffling, miniature echo chambers, slick glass, fine carpets, wood paneling, fancy reception area, lounge with a pool table, and a mixing room acoustically-tuned so as to minimize odd frequency pockets. ![]() It's a simple, high-ceilinged room with fairly basic recording equipment. Antonio and João are there to record an album with the American musicians. The three Brazilians are composer and pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim his friend, guitarist and singer João Gilberto and Gilberto's 22 year old wife, Astrud. Jazz saxophonist Stan Getz arrives shortly thereafter, with a bassist and drummer in tow. So does Verve Records producer Creed Taylor. There, a young recording engineer named Philip Rabinowitz greets them. They walk up three flights of stairs to the fourth floor, directly above Manny's, where they enter a recording studio. It's New York's premier music store.īut the Brazilians aren't interested in buying any instruments. The sign on the building says, "Manny's". Three Brazilians-two men and a woman-take a cab to a building at 112 West 48th Street. ![]()
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