What Makes Me Happy: Brazilian Jazz
What Makes Me Happy: Brazilian Jazz
Happiness 7 years ago No Comments

Brazilian Jazz

With Valentine’s Day and The Grammy Awards both around the corner, I thought I’d mention my love of Brazilian Jazz. With its quiet tones and beautiful melodies, this musical genre always makes me feel good. Whether purely instrumental or with vocals in Portuguese or English, this romantic music lowers my stress level and probably affects me like chocolate affects others.

Why Brazilian Jazz

I blame (or should I say, give credit to?) my parents for my love of Brazilian Jazz. They were huge fans of Antônio Carlos Jobim (a.k.a. Tom Jobim), Astrud Gilberto, Elis Regina, and Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 when this musical wave crashed onto USA shores in the 1960s. As I was growing up just a decade later, at least once a week songs by these talented artists wafted through our home and, thus, permeated my evolving brain.

Once I moved out of the house, I lost touch with Brazilian Jazz for a while, preferring to forge my own musical tastes, which leaned more toward New Wave and Seattle grunge than Bossa Nova. That changed when I happened to go see a little independent film called Next Stop Wonderland in the late 90s.

Surprisingly, the soundtrack for this romantic comedy set far from South America is nothing but Brazilian Jazz, and it immediately reignited my love for the genre. Listening to it induces a peaceful calm and creates a bit of a dreamlike atmosphere, which is why I chose to play it on the very first date I had with the man who is now my husband.

And now for the most famous Brazilian Jazz tune of them all, “The Girl from Ipanema”…

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