Music: Bossa Nova Nova

Most people thought bossa nova was dead, and most were glad to have simply survived the hucksterized flood of bossa nova dances, bossa nova shoes and sweatshirts, boogie bossa nova, soul bossa nova.

But last week a packed audience at San Francisco's Jazz Workshop listened raptly as slim, meek Astrud Gilberto, 24, stood before a microphone and sang The Girl from Ipanema, in a voice so soft and introverted that it barely cut the smoke. Behind her, Stan Getz wove wispy filigrees on his tenor sax to produce the most infectious "new sound" around—the bossa nova nova.

Eloquent Sermon. It all started a...

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