I’m sure that most readers will be aware that Bossa Nova is very popular in Japan- in the future we will look at some native Japanese Bossa artists. But this lady is a bit special…Lisa Ono was born in São Paulo in 1962 and moved with her family to Tokyo at the age of 10, afterwards spending half of every year in Japan, and half in Rio.
While living in Brazil her father owned a club, and was also Baden Powell's agent.
Her singing career began at a restaurant and her earliest recordings were for TV commercials.
Lisa had collaborated with a number of major stars during her career, including Tom Jobim, but this lp was made in 2007 to mark the 80th anniversary of the great man’s birth.
Here are some sleeve notes:
Thanks to Paulo & Daniel Jobim, and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s long time friend Miucha, I was able to record this Antonio Carlos Jobim song collection to celebrate his 80th birthday. While recording the songs, I devoted myself to expressing the spirit Antonio demonstrated in his arrangement so that the listeners could thoroughly enjoy the beauty of the songs that he created. This album is filled with our love for Antonio.Paulo & Daniel Jobim appear on the record.
A lot of info on Lisa here: http://www.onolisa.com/english/index.html
Incidentally Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, over 1 million people. In 1907, the Brazilian and Japanese governments signed a treaty permitting Japanese migration to Brazil, and the first Japanese immigrants (790 people - mostly farmers) arrived in Brazil in 1908.
