Bolero, Samba, Bossa Nova, Choro, Tango, Calypso, Salsa, and Afro-Cuban music, among many others, reflect the breadth of music developed over the years in the Americas mainly outside of the United States. You will learn to play examples of the music. The region has also been the inspiration for compositions that do not fall neatly into those categories, like Charlie Parker’s “Barbados”, Kenny Dorhams’ Blue Bossa, or Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas”. We’ll therefore add those tunes to Blue Mitchell’s Caribbean inspired “Funjii Mama”, Mongo Santamaria’s “Afro Blue”, Consuelo Velazquez’s classic bolero “Besame Mucho”, the traditional Caribbean tune “Don’t Stop the Carnival”, Astor Piazolla’s “Prelude to A Cyclical Night”, Pixinguinhia’s choro “Carinhoso”, Luiz Bonfa’s “Black Orpheus”, and Jobim’s “One Note Samba”.

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