The words bossa nova are often synonymous with the name Stan Getz. But North Americans might never have known the bright sound of bossa nova had it not been for Charlie Byrd. In 1961, Byrd returned from a tour of South America, where bossa nova music was booming. The style was an invention of singer Joao Gilberto and songwriter Antonio Carlos Jobim - an adaptation of infectious Brazilian samba rhythms with the harmonic structures and "cool" surface of West Coast jazz. Byrd brought records for Getz to hear, they planned a session, and the result was "Jazz Samba" -- the first album of real bossa nova music by jazz artists and the one that started the bossa nova craze in 1960s America.

The original recordings were produced by Creed Taylor. Recorded on February 13, 1962 at Pierce Hall, All Souls Unitarian Church, Washington, D.C.