Samba-jazz or jazz samba is an instrumental subgenre of samba that emerged in the bossa nova ambit in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Brazil.
[1][2] The style consolidated the approach of Brazilian samba with American jazz,[3] especially bebop and hard bop, jazzy styles quite experienced by Brazilian musicians in scope of gafieiras and nightclubs especially in Rio de Janeiro.
[2][4] Having its initial formation based on the piano, the double bass and the drums, samba-jazz gradually absorbed broader musical instruments.
[2] Unlike bossa nova, which is a style of samba characterized by its intimate spirit, soft sound and the restraint of sound elements, samba-jazz has many elements present in improvising and stridency.
[5] Nevertheless as bossa nova became well known, samba-jazz itself was favored by the bossa-novista repertoire,[6] and a whole generation of instrumentalists influenced by American jazz, such as Sérgio Mendes, J.T.