Serenata Carioca

This early album by Lisa Ono offers a solid look at the originality in both arrangement and delivery that she delivers in her wonderful read of the Brazilian new bossa nova tradition. Recorded in 1992, Serenata Carioca is more lush than many of her later recordings. Arrangement is the key to most of her recordings and this one is no exception, working with a variety of different groups and arrangers, including Antonio Adolfo, Clare Fischer, Helio Celso Suarez, J.T. Meirelles, and Jota Moraes. Ono wrote or co-wrote half of the material here, including the gloriously spare and haunting title track. But in a sense, the material, fine as it is, hardly seems the point; it's that voice — shimmering with something hidden underneath, lilting in the breeze on top of a guitar and piano, adorned with subtle percussive accompaniment and jazzy horns — that carries everything here. With Ono, it's all music, all bossa in particular; her phrasing and delivery are nearly peerless and the varied and ambiguous emotions in her vocalizing are beguiling. One listen to "Borboleta" with its ghostly strings that seep through her singing, or to "Flor de Campo" with its multi-layered horns, or to "Minha Casa" with its deep jazz expressionism are all one needs to know that without Ono's voice, these elements, though gorgeous and sultry, would cease to have meaning. This and Rio Bossa are the two records to have by Ono.