The Brian White Jazz /Bossa Nova Dueto, established in 2010, brings a fresh new choice to clients wanting great live music in Jersey (C.I.) for a wedding reception, corporate function or birthday celebrations. The duo is also a great choice for hospitality industry residencies that require an enthusiastic and modern approach to background music in an intimate setting such as a restaurant or small function room.
The Bossa Duo, although a recent venture, brings 35 years of combined experience of professional performance to this new and exciting ensemble. The varied music we play includes original bossa nova, samba, swing, jazz and ratpack themes to create a perfect relaxing backdrop of pleasing melodies, always at exactly the right volume. Ideal for a formal business function or as an ice breaker at an intimate wedding reception to help your guests relax.
- Muted or open trumpet (Latin percussion)
- Nylon strung guitar / jazz guitar
Our performance can be tailored to your taste from a set list of original bossa nova, Latin, samba, swing, jazz standards, rat-pack favorites and ballads. We will always try to play any requests with advanced notice.
Our aim is to continue to provide truly outstanding live music that is both accessible jazz, but yet retains its freedom of authenticity. A unique entity in the island that is in much demand and that is building on its reputation of fine musicianship.
Indeed, bossa nova compositions often spoke of love, the beach, and beautiful women and seemed to be a depiction of the author's bohemian life rather than a tale of Brazilians' daily struggles as usually happened with samba, a music genre popular among the working class. "The Girl from Ipanema," which became popular outside of Brazil both in its original Portuguese form and in translation, is a perfect example of the uncommitted quality of bossa nova songs. "The Girl from Ipanema" is nothing more than the composer's description of a woman walking down towards the beach, the sweet way in which she moves and how beautiful she is, culminating with the author's statement that she's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen go by. The music that accompanied the first wave of bossa nova lyrics, while unique, used the same altered chords found in jazz music combined with the drum beat characteristic of samba.
Perhaps ironically, bossa nova, the music style associated with complacence, is also considered responsible for the birth of the protest music of the 1960s that denounced the political uproar Brazil found itself in that led to the military coup of 1964. Critical of the insipid character of bossa nova lyrics and influenced by the precarious political and economic situation of Brazil, artists started using music to voice their opinions and as a vehicle to teach the largely uneducated Brazilian population about their country's current social, political and economic status.
Following the coup of 1964, a new generation of bossa nova musicians emerged. The music they composed was radically different from that created by the first generation of bossa nova musicians and depicted the plight of the Brazilian population and denounced the country's newly installed military government. In addition, this new type of bossa nova music had a nationalistic character that its predecessor lacked. This new wave of bossa nova musicians not only sang about the hardships of Brazilians, especially about the life in the drought-stricken northeastern region of the country; the music they composed to accompany their lyrics also made use of traditional Brazilian instruments and borrowed from other genres of Brazilian music like the type of samba heard in the urban slums. But in spite of the differences that distinguish them from one another, both styles of bossa nova were intrinsically linked to Brazil's history and reflected the historic period in which they were created, one born during a time of growth and the other created in a time of struggle.