Hong Kong audiences now have one more chance to catch sultry bossa nova star Lisa Ono. The Hong Kong Arts Festival has arranged an additional performance on March 9 next year at 8pm in the Concert Hall of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. The extra show complements her already-sold-out March 4 performance.
Next year's shows will be the Hong Kong debut of the award-winning singer-guitarist considered one the brightest bossa nova stars today. Ono and a four-piece ensemble will play timeless classics, such as The Girl from Ipanema, in a show that is part of worldwide celebrations to mark 50 years of bossa nova. Her band consists of Febian Reza Pane on piano, Hitomi Yamakami on flute and saxophone, Tomokazu Sugimoto on bass, and Satoshi Ishikawa on drums.
Ono was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and her years spent in South America as a child before returning to her native Japan resulted in a lifelong love of Brazilian music, especially bossa nova, the sultry blend of samba, jazz and poetry marked by distinctive guitar rhythms.
Aged 15, she began to perform in public, steadily winning over audiences in Japan with her gentle smile and silky voice. She is known as the best Japanese interpreter of contemporary bossa nova and has released 12 albums. Her mastery of the natural, authentic sound has received the stamp of approval from bossa nova pioneer Antonio Carlos Jobim, with whom she has made recordings.
In her A Celebration of 50 Years of Bossa Nova show, Ono pays tribute to music legends Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes and Jo?o Gilberto as well as jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Stan Getz and Miles Davis.