Learning the bossa nova guitar

A few months ago I started to teach myself guitar with the hope that I can eventually play it like João Gilberto, the inventor of the bossa nova style. Thanks to the internet I found some good resources on how to play the bossa nova on a guitar, and while I am still very far away from my stated goal above, my crash and burns in this dept. has given me some new insights on why bossa nova guitar is difficult to learn.

Samba and Carnival in Brazil: History and Today

(Update: For a first-hand report on Rio, samba and the carnival, please check out my Brazil travelogue under Pages: Rio Part I, Rio Part II and Rio Part III.)

History
When the Portuguese colonized Brazil, they brought over a medieval tradition called entrudo where people threw eggs and water at each other on the streets just before Lent. Over the years as these Portuguese settlers celebrated entrudo, black people - originally brought over to Brazil from Africa as slaves - also started dancing in the streets simultaneously. However, the conservative whites did not approve of the blacks’ dances because of their sexual overtones.

The dance that the blacks were doing was the precursor to samba. The accompanying musicians played drums and whistles, and by the late 19th century, the dancing and the music became more ritualized, and more accepted by the Brazilian society. Dance clubs were formed, especially in Rio. Today, the dance clubs have evolved into escola de samba (samba schools), which are featured in carnival parades with elaborate costumes, music and percussion band serving the school-chosen theme every year.

Summer, Highland Falls

I was listening to Billy Joel’s Turnstiles album tonight and even though I have heard the following song so many times before, I never fully understood it… until now.

Summer, Highland Falls

They say that these are not the best of times,
But they’re the only times I’ve ever known,
And I believe there is a time for meditation in cathedrals of our own.
Now I have seen that sad surrender in my lover’s eyes,
And I can only stand apart and sympathize.

For we are always what our situations hand us…
It’s either sadness or euphoria.
And so we argue and we compromise,
and realize that nothing’s ever changed,
For all our mutual experience, our seperate conclusions are the same.

Now we are forced to recognize our inhumanity,
Our reason co-exists with our insanity.
And though we choose between reality and madness…
It’s either sadness or euphoria.

How thoughtlessly we dissipate our energies
Perhaps we don’t fulfill each other’s fantasies.
And so we’ll stand upon the ledges of our lives,
With our respective similarities…
It’s either sadness or euphoria.

Music and words by Billy Joel.