Woven tight into the current script is music, it arrives unexpectedly as a bossa nova band becomes enchanted with their first visit to Big Sur. Like anyone alive on the face of planet earth bossa nova is born in Antonio Carlos Jobim’s The Girl from Ipanema, the all-time most popular bossa song ever written. The 1963 smash hit was as big as big hits can get.
Since the script is comedy there is the constant demand of pace, the rate of speed of a scene, dialogue and consequentially the music all must mesh. That sent me off into a deeper dive into the Brazilian songbook. Included in this musical investigation I have listened carefully to the soundtrack from Black Orpheus and more importantly how the filmmaker deals with the films meshing pace with the music. We part company as one film is a tragedy the other a comedy.
I’ve given attention to listening to American jazz singer Karrin Allyson who has a lengthy engagement with bossa nova including singing bilingual versions of many Jobim classics. Brazilian born Ana Caram is another singer, and understudy who worked closely with Jobim. Like Allyson she has the pitch perfect voice to honor the carefully constructed melody lines Jobim uses to carry his songs throughout.
Looking over Quiet Nights-Quiet Stars the choice of chord changes, the unusual chords selected and the notes of the melody you’ll see how exacting Jobim is to song construction. Doing some background investigations, I discovered yes he was in LA, yes he was hanging around with Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson, Nelson Riddle, Sinatra and likely many studio recording musicians that made up the legendary Wrecking Crew. Especially easy to hear is how Jobim, Bacharach and Herb Albert all focused their melodies into a similar minimalist structure.
There is a longer list of vocalists trained in the musical art of singing bossa nova. Gal Costa, Maria Bethañia, Bebel Gilberto, Astrud Gilberto, Luciana Souza, Laura Vall and Elaine Elias. We got out to Yoshi’s in Oakland to see Brazilian born Elias who now lives in New York City. Elaine is this interesting hybrid vocalist and jazz pianist. Elaine Elias and Ana Caram both had firsthand experiences working with Jobim and I suspect like Zen Buddhism that bossa nova benefits from being directly transmitted from one musician to the next.
Fortunate for me on the internet is to be found lyrics translated from Portuguese to English. It takes some effort there the words may be found and with luck some might fit into the climate change comedy screenplay I am building.
That brings me back to Karrin Allyson who worked with a Brazilian vocal coach to create bilingual versions of some of bossa nova’s most important songs. I have found one song to use at the end of this story. To make this work I’m speeding up what an audience will see while trying to distract from how slow the songs pace is. We won’t know until we try—
After listening to hundreds of cuts, viewing as many YouTubes I have landed on five songs including O’ Pato (The Duck), O’ Barquinho (Little Boat), Two Kites, Baby and Outono (Stay). Copyrights complicate matters, but the songs are out there and available for a price.
I’d advise the producers to consult with Karrin Allyson and Ana Caram. Could they teach an average singing talent to take that giant leap and nail the songs? If they have a good ear, guts and grit just maybe. Some of the melodic turns in this list of songs will demand the best from any vocalist.
Here is what I know for sure. A great performance is created by the challenges you place upon your actors. So here I am in my imagination stuck on the Big Sur Coast with a bossa nova band trapped on a highway being inundated by an atmospheric river dumping untold inches of rain down upon the Santa Lucia’s. I mean what could go wrong. Well, since it is a comedy virtually everything— and that is the nature of a story.
A bossa nova band performs at a Big Sur resort bringing their fans in from near and far when as the curtain rises the resort is taking a potential knockout blow from a powerful storm—
I’m close to completing the first draft. Once I’ve got the frame fully constructed, I can take the next lap through. Here I’ll punch up the dialogue, add more detail to the principal characters where finally the script will go to a developmental editor for one last finer culling.
You would be surprised how big the challenge it is to set down on paper 20,000 words over 110 pages that you might then use as a blueprint to make a feature length film.
One good thing is that story is sort of like a mathematical equation— once certain factors are set into the puzzle the script must answer these factors honestly. All I have to do now is honor the truth of the good souls I am bringing life to.
