Was Samba Jazz distinct from bossa nova or was it interrelated with it?
DDF: It was interrelated. A lot of the musicians who were playing Samba Jazz also played bossa nova—like Milton Banana, a great drummer, who played in his style of Samba Jazz with his trio, but also played on the album Getz/Gilberto, in a very soft way. João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim would say, ‘What we play is samba.’ Samba is the root of bossa nova. The bossa nova I think turned into an intimate style of samba: a little guitar, acoustic; not so many percussion instruments with it; soft, small voices. The samba was more open. The bossa nova was a breath of fresh air. A lot of lyrics in the old Brazilian compositions talk about the heart breaking, and situations where the woman leaves the guy and the guy is desperate and everything. But bossa nova, for instance ‘Girl From Ipanema,’ tall and tan, talking about beautiful and fresh things. Sometimes people would ask Jobim whether bossa nova was very much influenced by jazz, and Tom said, ‘no, because jazz also has an influence fro
