The music may be ageless, but bossa nova's founding generation are aging. Forthcoming tours to Japan this month and next by Joao Gilberto, who, along with Antonio Carlos Jobim, was credited with creating bossa nova in the late 1950s, and Sergio Mendes, bossa nova's great popularizer, may well be their last.
Bossa nova has always had a particular popularity in Japan. During the '90s, it underpinned two of Tokyo's most fertile music movements: The Japanese version of Acid Jazz, whose proponents included UFO, mirrored its fusion of jazz and Latin rhythms, not to mention its very adult vibe; and Shibuya-kei drew on its introspection and sculpted melodies.
Literally meaning "new beat," bossa nova first emanated from Rio de Janeiro's beach districts nearly 50 years ago. Yet, like a Frank Lloyd-Wright home or an Eames chair, bossa nova still seems fresh and new.