bos⋅sa no⋅va
[bos-uh noh-vuh, baw-suh] 
| 1. | jazz-influenced music of Brazilian origin, rhythmically related to the samba. |
| 2. | a dance performed to this music. |
1960–65; < Pg: lit., new tendency, leaning
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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| bos·sa no·va (bŏs'ə nō'və, bô'sə) n.
[Portuguese : bossa, trend + nova, new.] |
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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bossa nova
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bossa nova
Brazilian popular music that evolved in the late 1950s from a union of samba (a Brazilian dance and music) and cool jazz. The music is in syncopated 24 time. The composer Antonio Carlos Jobim and the guitarist Joao Gilberto may be considered the founders of this style, which was considered particularly characteristic of Brazilian culture and which in the mid-1960s began to be associated with movements of social protest. Instrumentation is varied and purposely simple, limited to a few rhythm instruments-e.g., guitar, berimbau (musical bow), drum, or a single-note piano accompaniment. In vocalized passages the musical background becomes more subdued to allow the singer greater range for improvisation. As a dance, the bossa nova differs little from the samba, requiring the same subtle body rhythm and two-step foot movement
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