We listen to a lot of Latin music at our house, especially music from Brazil. It is a great dream of mine to learn some Portuguese so I can sing my favorite songs in this beautiful language. Every Friday morning I listen to KSFR’s Jazz a la Carta with Ricardo Perez and Helga Ancona. He’s a Venezuelan and she’s Brazilian. They play 3 hours of jazz, with a full hour devoted to Brazilian music. The two of them like to banter back and forth in their native tongues–I’ve picked up quite a bit of Portuguese just from tuning in. But the best part is when Helga tells stories about life in Brazil, where she was part of the music scene. She’s got amazing personal stories about Jobim and Gilberto. Whenever she comes back from Brazil she brings new records and I’m always astounded by the variety of music that exists there. It’s a highlight in my week!

Dashiell loves the Latin sounds too. In the first couple weeks of his life, when we were camped out in the spare bedroom getting to know each other, I played and sang him songs by Bebel Gilberto, Luciana Souza, and of course all the Bossa Nova hits from the late 1960s. He has been learning that music is something you should move to. Here he is showing off his moves, with a little help from Dad.