Excerpt frpm "The True Bossa Nova"
http://www.megatar.com/documents/newsletters/archive/MTN-200110.html#Article1

Interview with Marcos Silva, a Brazilian Keyboard Master:

"What is the authentic Bossa rhythm? A: Aha! I grew up in Brazil, and spent half my life there, and I never heard a Brazilian drummer play bossa nova the way Americans usually hear it played.

Let me write it down. Here's two measures of 'WRONG', and then there is a correct example. ['RIGHT.'](see link)

Why is this one wrong and that one right? A: First, the Bossa Nova is not really a rhythm. The Bossa Nova is a period of time. The true Bossa Nova is music from that period. It's not just the rhythm.

In my opinion, the American guys went to Brazil, and they brought it here -- Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd -- To play that true rhythm on the drums is very hard. So these musicians went out and they played some 'Latin stuff.' And the combination wasn't a happy one, you know what I'm saying? (laughs)

They were playing root-root five-five, like in 'Ricky don't lose that number'. And I don't know anybody in Brazil who plays the bossa nova with the clave rhythm.

In other words, this whole simplification that says you take the samba clave rhythm and you move the last beat one click later, and now you got your bossa nova, it's just not true.

The clave - we don't have that instrument in Brazil. So the thing about the clave and Brazilian music, I don't know where it comes from. These claves, bongos, and so on, if you hear them in Brazilian music they are just enhancement. They are not part of the music. In Brazilian music, the harmony and melody dictate where the music is going. "