'' Bossa Nova U.S.A. '' is a studio album released by the

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

Quartet in 1963 by Columbia originally in the United States as

LP record The LP (from long playing or long play) is an Analog recording, analog sound storage medium, specifically a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of revolutions per minute, rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use ...

CS 8798 (stereo) and CL 1998 (mono) and in England as SBPG 62127. It was also released by CBS in Australia, as catalog SPB 233.038.

Background and recording

Since 1955, Brubeck had composed and performed pieces originating from influences outside of the European musical tradition, in which this album, released during the bossa nova craze in the United States of the late 1950s and early 1960s, can be best categorized. It is intended to be "impressionistic" of "the cool wave from Brazil." Recorded through most of 1962, and released early in 1963, the album was designed to be effective on the pop charts. All tracks were recorded in New York City. Five tracks were recorded on January 3, 1962 in a session dedicated to bossa nova. Two additional tracks were recorded on Thursday, July 5 that year in another dedicated session, while an additional two were recorded the same day the next week in a session with an additional track that appeared on the 1965 album '' My Favorite Things''. The last track to be recorded was the title track, laid down on October 25, 1962 in a session that also included three songs appearing elsewhere. This album sits in stark contrast to the "time"-themed series of albums, in that each track is typified simply by a

samba Samba () is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilians, Afro Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, It is a name or ...

-based rhythm.

Release

In advance of the album, the title track was released as a single (Columbia 42651) in the last week of 1962, with " This Can't Be Love" as the B-side. This met with moderate success, peaking at #69 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

. The album followed soon in early 1963.

Reception

On release, ''

'' called the album "first-class Brubeck." While noting the number of bossa tracks, it particularly singled out a re-working of '' The Trolley Song'' as a standout track. ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' expected the record to be popular with the general public, but noted "purists will wince." The album found more success with the public than the single, appearing for fifteen weeks on ''Billboard''s album charts, achieving position #14. In 1998, the album was released in Japan as a CD, in mini LP format, in the "Sony Master Sound" series as

Sony Records Sony Records was a record label founded by R&B duo Ike & Tina Turner in 1963. It was not affiliated with Sony Group Corporation. Ike Turner produced singles by members of the Kings of Rhythm and the Ikettes on Sony Records. Records on the la ...

SRCS 9364.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Dave Brubeck, except where indicated:

Personnel

–

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

* Paul Desmond –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

* Joe Morello –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Eugene Wright –

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bossa Nova U.S.A. 1963 albums Columbia Records albums Dave Brubeck albums Albums produced by Teo Macero 1960s instrumental albums