why do all Bossa's sound like elevator music ??

MacKeagan

Hmmm. I am thinking this is the "too-much-of-a-good-thing" syndrome, perhaps? I have experienced jams(and rehearsals, and performances) where everyone is tired, the coffee has worn off, we are thinking about the road home, and dam! but that tune irritates me. As many posters have pointed out there are lots of bossa tunes out there, some good, some not so good. It is like vibrato, or ketchup (le sauce Americaine), a little is enough to give a change of pace to a set. But when you have a bunch of jammers going round and round with the same tunes, it gets "mental" as we say in the backwoods of New Joisey.
That said, there are some genres/tunes that I find irritating, which the public loves and I refuse to play (like reggae and soca), and this may indeed be the case for some of us with the bossas.
Count your blessings we are not doing Old-Time fiddle music, where we could be playing Flop-eared Mule 24 times in a row, always the same, and in the same key, with no variation.

Michael Bauer

No, gypsy bossas just suck.

At the point where someone calls out Bossa Dorado for the fifth time in two hours at whatever jam is happening in my room at Django in June, and I'd happily settle for even a not-so-rousing version of Flop-Eared Mule, even though I've never heard it.

anthon_74

I'd rather listen to Fran Drescher then a gypsy Bossa. It really don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

A

Passacaglia

I'd rather bossa than dress Fran.

I enjoy the hell out of them. I do get tired of jams and bossa dorado...but that goes for minor swing - and I still like swing tunes. For me, it's more about hackneyed pieces, than the gypsy bossa rhythm. Moonflower, for instance, which I came to know fairly recently (I know, Carlos...I'm still a baby musically).

DjangoJim

Okay- I've been trying to ignore this topic but after four pages, it doesn't want to go away, so I will chime in.

Gypsy Bossa's are great change up tunes, when put into context of a full set of swing tunes. They're not my favorite to solo over but don't mind if someone calls one now and then, and I do know the heads to many of them.

It doesn't have to be so black and white-"they suck/they're great". I've played many styles of music on the bandstand and I've always had my "oh shit, not this song again" moments. But I do them with a smile on my face because, someone in the band called it and they're getting off on it. Take one for the team, so to speak.

So how do I get around the conundrum of too many gypsy bossa's? First, suggest a slower tempo and give them that more Brazilian feel to it. I think the thing that bothers me most about Gypsy bossas is that fast clipped even 8th note feel. Try "Black Orpheus" real slow and sexy, it's an entirely differently tune. Second, if it is a speedier tempo, try swinging the solos or switch back and forth every go around. Third, throw out a challenge. Each time it goes around, raise the key half a step. That'll keep those Bossa Dorado-ers on their toes.

Finally, let's not single out Gypsy Bossas as the only bad guy. I think most Djams suffer from lack of depth in repertoire. The tunes called usually filter down to the lowest common denominator, so we always get stuck playing "All of Me" and "Bossa Dorado" cuz that's what everyone knows. For crying out loud, learn some new tunes everyone, or be doomed to
"Bossa All Of Sweet Georgia Lulu For Coquette Dorado"!

Djam with you soon!
Jim

Ando

"Bossa All Of Sweet Georgia Lulu For Coquette Dorado"

Someone should write that.

Bones

Jorgenson's version of the surf guitar tune Man of Mystery is pretty fun.

Ando

Real bossa's (not the rumbas mentioned above) sound like elevator music because bossa is a refinement of samba, an edited samba. It's deliberately more genteel rhythmically, which ends up sounding safer and less energetic. Plus, Joao Gilberto sounds like he's on Prozac -- which is kind of nice when you're sipping mojitos by the pool, but not when you're out among the crazies.

Jazzaferri

I confess, I like bossa's but I don't do the rhythm in a typical way. Keeping the clave in the back of my mind as agroove but responding more to the tune or the soloist if I am playing rhythm

Bones

Jazza, do you mean like kind of a 'looser' feel for the rhythm.