10/10/08
Text: Nik Mercer
With a genre as ubiquitous and widespread as bossa nova, it's difficult to realize that the Latin music was birthed at a very specific time and place (how can you just invent a new style like that!?)
Around 1957 or 1958 in Rio de Janeiro's southside, a small group of musicians―Antônio Carlos Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes and João Gilberto being some of the big affiliated names―came together and literally concocted the style that we all know as bossa nova.
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the funky, rhythmic, incredibly dancey genre, Man Recordings dove into Universal Music Jazz's Verve and MPS archives, dug up some prime examples of the Brazilian music, and commissioned a handful of baile funk DJ's to remix the cuts. The resultant thirteen track compilation, Bossa do Morro (put together by Berlin-based DJ, producer, and music journalist, Daniel Haaksman), reverentially maintains the core soul and beauty of the original songs, but twists everything in this amazingly modern and accessible manner. Let's be honest, something that got people boogieing fifty years ago ain't going to have the same magic for today's audiences―beats need to be dropped in, synth ditties need to be added, and some stellar turntablism needs to be integrated.
Unfortunately, we can't even give you a sample stream or two, but we assure you, this is a record you must buy! The disc drops on October 24, so you won't have to wait too long!
