Gal Costa, a legend of MPB, in a round table discussion

BraZil’s biggest export? Coffee you say? yes well you may be right, but I would argue that first if not a close second is music. Music is the domain of everyone in Brazil. In Brasil it is a national pass-time. From the masses of people in impoverished neighbourhoods to the more ‘refined’ upper classes… p’shaw… Brazilian music, and specifically recorded Brazilian music has influenced the popular music industry in many ways.

One of the most obvious is in the jazz realm. A quick search of the term “bossanova” is all you need to do to understand more about this. No jazz compilation is complete without a few recordings by the great Tom Jobim, who composed songs like “the Girl from Ipanema” and “Chega de Saudade” two fabulous standards, and played in many a genre.

The great Tom Jobim

Recently, The New York Times, as part of their annual Arts & Leisure Weekend, invited Gal Costa and Cassandra Wilson, a NYC area jazz musician well versed in Brazilian music, to talk about the importance of Bossa Nova in their careers and to discuss a little bit about their musical influences. The talk is a little intellectualized, but if you have the time and disposition it is very interesting. Together, Cassandra WIlson and Gal Costa draw on decades of experience and knowledge. They analyse musical forms and how they are perceived in Brazil and in the rest of the world. special thanks to BrazilNYC.com for the footage and all the references.