Jazz · jazz samba · 4/4 tresillo bossa · 3-2

Jazz samba

170 bpm
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16ths

Jazz samba — bossa nova as American jazz players took it up in 1962 (Jazz Samba, Getz/Byrd, then Getz/Gilberto): a little faster and harder than João Gilberto's guitar, with a jazz drummer's kit. The drums play straight eighths on the hi-hat (brushes or sticks), a samba bass drum (1, and-of-2, 3, and-of-4), and a cross-stick on the bossa clave — that is the clave layer here, 3-2.

The bass plays in two — root and fifth, half notes — and the piano comps with rootless two-hand voicings that anticipate the next chord on the and of 4, then answer the clave's 2-side (beat 2, and of 3) in the following bar.

Listen for the anticipation at the end of bars 1 and 3: the new chord arrives half a beat early and the downbeat is left to the bass. Practice: mute the piano and clap the clave against the bass, then play only the anticipations. The changes are the opening of "Desafinado", in F.

References & listening

  • Recording Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd Jazz Samba(Verve, 1962)
  • Book Duduka Da Fonseca & Bob Weiner Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset(Manhattan Music, 1991)
  • Book John Riley The Art of Bop Drumming(Manhattan Music, 1994)— "More Jazz Essentials": Samba

How this pattern was made

  • standard practice (Stan Getz / Charlie Byrd, Jazz Samba (1962); Getz/Gilberto (1964)); no transcribed source