10 Selects from Todd Rundgren pulled from a 1997 Japanese music research book on Todd Rundgren. I recently picked up a Japanese music book titled Todd Rundgren – […]
Bola Sete and the Vince Guaraldi Trio Take On The Tranquil Sounds of Bossa Nova (1963)

During a rare heatwave in San Francisco, Bola Sete and the Vince Guaraldi trio give an equally sweltering performance.
It wouldn’t be too far of stretch to say Bola Sete was born with a guitar in hand. As a young boy growing up on the coast in Rio de Janeiro, he was thrilled by the North American bebop and jazz flowing into Brazil from artists like Oscar Moore of the Nat King Cole Trio and Dizzy Gillespie. It may have been prophetic, because Bola Sete would find his musical future in the United States and it was Dizzy Gillespie himself who mentored him into the scene. Sete would never stray far from the breezy string stylings that are so uniquely Brazilian, and it was precisely this that made him a sought-after collaborator by jazz musicians around the world.
Here he plays with the Vince Guaraldi Trio in San Francisco, where Bola Sete called home for most of his life. This performance was organized to promote a new record they had just release simply titled, “Vince & Bola”. Bola is the star of the show here with an impressive intensity that’s a stunning display of musicianship, and Guaraldi’s delicate compositions on the piano are his fascinating attempts at creating a new genre he calls “Mombasa” — a blend of popular mambo and bossa nova. This pristine live recording is so soothing and lovely; there isn’t a wrong time to give this a watch or listen.