Walter Wanderley: the “Bossa Nova” forgotten

This book is characterized as the result of an ethnomusicological and historical research by Recife musician Walter Wanderley (1932-1986), known as a representative of Bossa Nova. Organist, pianist, arranger and sporadic composer, Walter Wanderley has released dozens of records on record labels such as Odeon, Philips, the American company Verve and many others, both as an instrumentalist and arranger for singers and as solo instrumental albums. Even with such a robust record production, Walter Wanderley seems to have been forgotten by most records in the History of Brazilian Popular Music. This book tries to help understand how this success happened predominantly only outside his country of origin and the reasons why his name was practically omitted by historiography and by important references of Bossa Nova. As was his performance in other genres such as Samba, Bolero, Sambalanço and Sambajazz, which are much more present in his work than Bossa Nova itself, a genre for which the artist came to be labeled as representative, especially after his death. The book makes a contribution to the construction of knowledge for Ethnomusicology, Musicology and other areas of study of Brazilian Popular Music in its relations with the cultural industry and with the aspects between Memory and Forgetfulness.