On November 21, 1962, the president and owner of Audio-Fidelity Records, Sidney Frey, along with Show magazine, presented a landmark bossa nova concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Frey flew to Rio in September and invited the bossa nova hierarchy, including João Gilberto, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá, Sérgio Mendes, Roberto Menescal, Milton Banana, Oscar Castro-Neves, and Carlos Lyra. They performed alongside jazz musicians such as Stan Getz, Charlie Byrd, Lalo Schifrin, and Gary McFarland in what turned out to be a historic event despite many production and programming problems. The concert was sold-out and more than 1,000 disappointed people were turned away.
The concert received mixed reviews primarily because of audio problems and poor programming. However, Sidney Frey produced the LP, Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall, and film clips from the concert were included in a CBS Eyewitness News show, “The New Beat” that was broadcast five weeks later.
The Carnegie Hall concert was important in promoting bossa nova both in the United States and Brazil. It launched professional collaborations between Brazilian and United States’ artists and resulted in recording contracts for many of the Brazilian musicians. In the aforementioned BBC documentary, Jobim’s son, Paulo recalls, “Many of the musicians who went there to play, stayed there and began to work, like Oscar [Castro-Neves], Sérgio Mendes, Jobim, and Gilberto.”
Felix Grant received a commemorative plaque from the Brazilian Consul General of New York, Audio Fidelity Records, and Show magazine in appreciation for his participation in the concert.