From the beginnings of jazz music in America to the early 20th century, jazz was a purely American form of music. It began with marches, led by John Philip Sousa, an American composer. This morphed into the collective improvisation period of the 1920s, which produced greats like New Orleans-born Louis Armstrong. Around the same time as Armstrong's fame was that of Duke Ellington, who was born and raised in Washington, DC. This model of evolution of jazz originating in America was the standard for almost sixty years; however, everything changed in the late 1950s, when an explosion of music from South America occurred. This Brazilian music, which has been evolving for years in its home country, combined with American jazz music and forms created one of the most unique and interesting styles of jazz music America had ever seen: bossa nova. Bossa nova ("new style" or "new trend"), one of the first jazz styles with no direct American origin, influenced music in America to use its ideas and sounds, but also to move away from the new Brazilian style. Bossa nova is a subgenre of Latin jazz, which largely originated in Latin America. There are some important differences between Latin jazz and straight jazz. First, percussion is most often featured as a solo in Latin jazz music. Furthermore, the percussion in this jazz form is extremely varied, using congas, bongos, claves, timbales and many more auxiliary percussion than the classic drums found in pure jazz. Additionally, Latin jazz uses straight eighth notes instead of swinging eighth notes. A very important feature of Latin jazz and bossa nova music is the clave rhythm. This rhythm consists of a five-bar syncopated rhythm that forms the backbone of almost......half of the paper......aAGh.dpbs.Goldschmitt, Kariann. “Doing Bossa Nova: The Curious Life of a Social Dance in 1960s North America.” Luso-Brazilian Journal 48, n. 1 (2011): 63-64.Guthrie, Woody. “This land is your land.” Recorded 1944, 1945.Holston, Mark. "Bossa again after all these years." Hispanic 22, no. 1 (2009): 66-67. Mendes, Sergio and The Black Eyed Peas, "Mas Que Nada". Recorded 2005, Concord, 2006.Miles, Barry. Paul McCartney: many years from now. London: Secker and Warburg, 1997.Prosser, Lee. Review of Amorosa, by Rosa Passos, Sony Classical, 2004, http://www.jazzreview.com/cd-reviews/brazilian-jazz-brazilian-pop-jazz-cd-reviews/amorosa-by-rosa-passos.html .Shakira. "Get A Yes." Recorded 2005, Epic Records, 2005. Sinatra, Francis Albert and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. Recorded in 1967, Reprise, 1967, compact disc.