Cozy Cole is available to play classic songs from the Bossa Nova canon at your next New York City function.
Nothing sets a relaxed mood like a swinging Samba.
Intimate. Joyful. Romantic.
"Cozy Cole" Smithey builds on a lifetime of musical experience (playing in bands such as San Diego's "Rockin’ Dogs," and with New York City Jazz guitar legends Ed Maceachen and Ron Parmentier) to follow a 30-year dream of performing solo instrumental guitar arrangements from Bossa Nova's timeless canon of exquisite songs for your live listening pleasure.
Cozy Cole exclusively plays Sadowsky guitars through Henriksen amps. Special thanks to Roger Sadowsky.
MEMBER: American Federation of Musicians Union — NYC Local 802.
Thanks to everyone in Carnegie Hill who came out to the Church of the Heavenly Rest Street Fair for my Bossa Nova Utopia. Even the sun came out to bless this festive occasion! The vibe was super chill.
Bossa Nova means "New Wave." How fitting for this lush Brazilian style of guitar-based music created by João Gilberto on his acoustic guitar in the town of Juazeiro, Bahia over a five year period in the early '50s. João Gilberto's music exploded on the beaches of Rio during the '50s and '60s via a passionate group of college friends whose socialist political views were transposed through harmonically rich love songs filled with complex melodic lines juxtaposed against a clave rhythm (think Bo Diddley) with simple bass lines. Ah, what beauty.
Bossa Nova represented a youthful, utopic celebration of modernity by a middle class of energetic young Brazilian leftists who shined a brilliant ray of hope for Brazil's momentarily bright future. Sadly, their enigmatic voices and hopes were stunted after a US-promoted coup d'état in 1964 that sent many of Brazil's Bossa Nova stars to start new lives in America. Shockingly, it became illegal to even listen to Bossa Nova music in Brazil.
By that time, Marcel Camus’s Oscar-winning 1959 film "Black Orpheus" had introduced Bossa Nova to the world. Stan Getz’s sassy 1961 collaboration with guitarist Charlie Byrd (“Jazz Samba”) laid the groundwork for Frank Sinatra to introduce Bossa Nova stars, such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Ana Lucia, Carlos Lyra, and Astrud Gilberto, to American audiences. The rest is the future that is Bossa Nova now. Feel Cozy Cole's warm orchestral harmonizing Bossa Nova vibe at your next cozy Manhattan function. You've got taste.