“The Girl From Ipanema” — Astrud Gilberto

Very few musicians are as closely identified with the breakthrough of an entirely new musical style as João Gilberto.

Even the Beatles didn’t do that — they adopted, adapted and developed hugely what had gone before them, taking rock and roll from its original home in the late-night bars of the rural South and elevating it to an art form, but the Fab Four, despite their immense individual and collective talents, did not invent rock and roll.

Rock and roll’s breakthrough artists, depending on who you talk to, were probably either…