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In 2007, celebrating the 80th anniversary of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s birth with her album The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim –IPANEMA-, Lisa Ono has completed her musical home coming. This year for her new albums, she chose jazz standards, and recorded two new albums with a different concept. Also, these new albums are going to be released at the same date, so I’m sure you can feel how much Lisa put herself in to this project.
Look To The Rainbow -Jazz Standards from L.A.- was produced by Lisa and Bill Cantos, who sang and played piano on the 2006 Soul & Bossa. Bill Cantos, based in Los Angeles, is a singer, composer, pianist and an arranger, and one of the main artist of the current AOR scene. He has performed with Sergio Mendes, and also known for his detailed knowledge of Brazilian music. Dori Caymmi, based in California and one of the leaders of Brazilian music, introduced Bill to Lisa, and is also on the album as an arranger and a guitar player for two songs.
The sound concept of this album is, “Lisa Ono with chorus”. Every tune has a chorus, and two of the songs features Take 6. Although this album is the first experience for her to perform with a real chorus, Lisa always loved to listen to chorus groups such as Quarteto em Cy, Os Cariocas from Brazil, or The Hi-Lo’s from U.S.A. Also it features songs with a theme of moon, rainbow, rain, a motif of sky, and with the heartwarming sound of the chorus that is naturally spread all over the album, it gives you a vivid impression of Los Angeles’ big blue sky.
Cheek To Cheek -Jazz Standards from Rio- was produced by Lisa and Mario Adnet, a Brazilian guitar player, has been arranging many songs for Lisa many years. The sound concept for this album is, “Lisa Ono with horns”, and features Big Band classics such as Duke Ellington’s numbers. The top horn section, strings, and percussion musicians of Rio, Brazil, supports Lisa.
In Brazil, there is a dance hall “Gafieira,” which is very common among the people for many years. The band of “Gafieira” with horn section plays not only samba and choro, but jazz and latin classics with Brazilian style, and man and woman gets in pair and dance to it. Their music became so popular that the word “Gafieira” now represents the dance itself or the genre. I’m sure the happy atmosphere of “Gafieira” is one of the things you can feel from this album.
Lisa Ono has sang these jazz standards loved by all of the world and generation, not only with a nostalgic feeling, but with a fresh sense from the new experiences with chorus and horn section. Listen to Lisa’s challenging spirit behind the good old and lovely melodies.
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| Jin Nakahara |
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