We're talking about "Choro", a Brazilian style that is older than Bossa Nova or Samba. Though most tunes have been around for one-hundred years, they still sound exquisite today.
Choro was born in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th Century, a result of mixing polkas, waltz, mazurkas and African-Brazilian rhythms such as the Lundu. Poor people, most of them former slaves and mestizos, put together their own musical style with instruments like flute, clarinet, guitar, cavaquinho, and light percussion. The music would be played at Christian parties, weddings, and birthday parties, always in the backyard of family homes. Choro means "cry." Jacob do Bandolim (1918-1969), one of the Choro masters, said "Choros are a collection of music to cry, to make people cry." Not because of sadness, but of happiness.