João Gilberto

João Gilberto Prado Pereira de Oliveira known as João Gilberto June 10 1931 is a Brazilian singer songwriter and guitarist His recordings including many songs by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes established the musical genre of bossa nova in the late 1950s Bossa nova new style is a refined version of samba deemphasizing the percussive aspect of its rhythm and enriching the melodic and harmonic content Rather than relying on the traditional AfroBrazilian percussive instruments João Gilberto often eschews all accompaniment except his guitar which he uses as a percussive as well as a harmonic instrument incorporating the parts of different samba percussion instruments such as the tamborim and the surdo from a full batucada band The singing style he developed is almost whispering economical and without vibrato He creates his tempo tensions by singing ahead or behind the beat He continues to perform though rarely to sellout crowds in Brazil Europe North America and Japan His planned public performances in Madrid 2009 and New York City 2010 were cancelled with short notice A 2011 minitour of Brazil was cancelled due to health reasons He is the father of singer Bebel Gilberto Isabel via his marriage to Miúcha Source Wikipedia