Hear This

Possibly the most revered Brazilian musician alive, Bahian guitarist João Gilberto changed the face of modern popular music when he unveiled the "bossa nova," or new wave, back in the late 1950s. As detailed in Ruy Castro's magnificent, recently translated book, Bossa Nova, Gilberto was a notorious pothead and no-show performer who had been kicked out of several bands before meeting composer Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose subtle, modern compositions found their perfect match in the guitarist's gentle, incandescent, half-whispered style. Bossa nova stripped the samba down to its essence, with a delicate elegance and shimmering beauty that reinvigorated the Brazilian music scene. When Jobim and Gilberto joined forces with American jazzman Stan Getz in 1963, the bossa nova revolution hit its full stride, with songs such as "Girl From Ipanema" and "Desafinado" becoming global anthems that transformed the musical vocabulary of jazz and popular song. João Gilberto's nickname -- "O Mito," Portuguese for "The Myth" -- reflects his status as patron saint of both modern Brazilian pop and the rock-oriented tropicalia movement of the late '60s and early '70s, when younger artists such as Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil frequently acknowledged their debt to the master musician.

Details

Friday and Saturday, July 25-26, at 8 p.m.

Tickets are $25-60

788-7353

www.sfjazz. org

Masonic Auditorium, 1111 California (at Taylor), S.F.

Related Content

• Tropicália’s Swedish Stars
  October 7, 2009
• Mochilla's B Plus on Endtroducing, J-Dilla, and the Last Ten Years of Hip-Hop Photography
  June 1, 2011
• Eliot Rose Makes Sense of Cosmic WTFs Tomorrow at Hotel Utah
  March 18, 2011
• Grammy Cuts: Bay Area Musicians, Including Carlos Santana, Petition to Restore Award Categories
  May 10, 2011
• Outside Lands Picks Part 1: Five Ways to a Fitter You
  August 26, 2009

More About

• Joao Gilberto
• Antonio Carlos Jobim
• Stan Getz
• Ruy Castro
• Latin Music

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Music Newsletter: Keep your thumb on the local music scene with music features, additional online music listings and show picks. We'll also send special ticket offers and music promotions available only to our Music Newsletter subscribers.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Now 72 years old, Gilberto tours and records infrequently -- this week's concerts at the Masonic Auditorium will be a near-religious experience, a rare opportunity to see O Mito in person, with each performance sure to be packed with enraptured fans from the Bay Area"s irrepressibly enthusiastic Brazilian community.