“It was sensual and intellectual at the same time — a rare and potent combination.”

David Byrne offers these observations on the 50th anniversary of Bossa Nova:

Everyone has heard “Girl From Ipanema”; it’s one of the most popular songs in the world, after “Happy Birthday,” “Yesterday,” and “White Christmas.” It has become a bit of a lounge cliché, but try playing it using the original Jobim chords — it’ll kick your ass.

I’m no historian of this movement that combined sophisticated jazz chords with incredible pop songwriting and lilting samba rhythms, but I can sense some influences flowing back and forth, north and south, east and west. I hear touches of the quiet vibrato-less vocal style that Chet Baker made famous, the textural harmonies of Debussy and the poetry of Cole Porter and many others. It was sensual and intellectual at the same time — a rare and potent combination. Too bad more art movements can’t share that approach.

- David Byrne: Link.