Lisa Ono -- One-Note Samba

Late on Saturday night, I decided for some reason to go a little later than usual for my YouTube forays, and when I went off on a slight tangent and checked out the news on CNN online, I found out in a short blurb that the legendary João Gilberto, one of the pioneers for the Brazilian genre of bossa nova had just passed away at the age of 88.

Not surprisingly, Brazilian TV devoted a lot of their news time to the life and music of Gilberto that night.

What I found out from Wikipedia was that the bossa nova standard popularly known as "One-Note Samba" was created by the other pioneers of the genre, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça with Gilberto being the first musician to record the song all the way back in 1960 for his album "O Amor, o Sorriso e a Flor". The original title for the classic was "Samba de uma Nota Só".

Of course, probably dozens of musicians around the world have covered "One-Note Samba" over the decades. The one person that I automatically thought of in Japan who would give her contribution to the song's legacy was São Paulo-born Lisa Ono（小野リサ）. And so she did a number of times with one of those times being on her 2002 BEST album "Ono Lisa Best 1997-2001". There's nothing like Ono's soft and whispery vocals adorning the music of Jobim.

Finally, here is "One-Note Samba" by Gilberto himself. Another cover that I had already noted was one by Atsuko Nina（二名敦子）for her 1983 album "Play Room ~ Tawamure ~"（PLAY ROOM ～戯れ～...Fun）under the title of "Communication".  I will have to soon think of an Author's Pick to devote to bossa-influenced kayo.