Rosa Passos: Amorosa

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Gary Giddins wrote in the New Yorker: "Rosa Passos is often described as the heir to, or female equivalent of, João Gilberto, which is a way of saying that she is a distinguished interpreter of bossa nova at a time when gifted young Brazilian singers, like Marisa Monte, have adopted more fashionable pop styles. This won’t necessarily sound appealing to those who recall bossa nova as an easy-listening diversion of the Kennedy years, epitomized by Astrud Gilberto’s girlishly vacant invocation of 'The Girl from Ipanema.' But there has always been a difference between the musical phenomenon that began in Brazil in the late fifties and the watered-down version that flourished in the United States. Though the latter inspired brilliant collaborations … bossa nova quickly became a lounge-music punch line. … In Brazil, the perspective is entirely different. While João Gilberto reigns as a god, Astrud is hardly known on the beaches of Ipanema. … The divide between the domestic bossa and its export-market derivative is sure to be much brooded over next year, when Brazil celebrates bossa nova’s fiftieth anniversary."