On her never-ending quest to incorporate the world's music into her take on bossa nova, in 2001 Japanese singer
Lisa Ono
added Hawaiian music to her repertoire. In collaboration with ukulele player
Yuzen Yamauchi
,
Ono
converts a number of Hawaiian classics to modern bossa nova. The music includes traditional pieces (many from
Queen Lili'uokalani
herself), more modern Hawaiian ballads, and ballads originally performed in honor of Hawaii more than based on Hawaiian music proper (such as
Elvis
' "Blue Hawaii").
adds all of them to her genre of choice, expanding the limits of bossa nova even further. ~ Adam Greenberg