Bossa Nova — Brazilian Guitar for Café Mornings

Bossa nova came out of Rio in the late 1950s, when João Gilberto took the rhythmic weight out of samba and moved it onto a quiet guitar figure played against the beat, with Antônio Carlos Jobim writing the harmony over the top. What makes the style so durable as background music is that off-kilter guitar pattern: it never lands where you expect, so the ear keeps finding it mildly interesting without ever being asked to pay attention.

This is the instrumental, guitar-forward end of the style rather than the sung repertoire, which suits a working session far better — Getz/Gilberto is a wonderful record and a terrible thing to write over. Sits alongside the coffee shop and Café Leblanc entries as another way to have jazz in a room without the jazz becoming the room.