Lisa Ono, 2012. one of the famous 'Girl from Ipanema', with airy voice, great rendition of Jobim classics and other Brazilian styled Bossa Novas. This was her 3rd time here in Singapore and our first concert to Lisa Ono. Shown at the Kallang Theater, the place seemed frozen in time, we have completely forgotten how the place looked like as the last time we went was possibly during the 1990s during the Les Miserables, Cats, Miss Saigon era. The stage look really small (we're too used to Esplanade Theater?), and the acoustics were poor but sound mixing made it worse. Maybe due to our seats (quite far stage left as seen from the image), the players nearer to us, (Flautist / Saxaphonist and percussionist), were impossibly loud and Lisa's guitar was non-existant. Scenes of Brazil / beach / was shown at the big screen/ projection behind the band for certain songs and they're reminiscent of poorly done Karaoke tapes of the 90s. The biggest disappointment of all was Lisa Ono. Her pitching was way all over the place. It literally hurts to listen ...*sob*. She tried to do covers on Bengawan Solo, Rasa Sayang, Ye Lai Xiang to add on the the woes. Singing seemingly completely from scores, she might have focused on the pronunciation and completely forgotten the dynamics. The 2nd song of the encore (some chinese song!!) was much worse....we were trying to 'switch off' our ears...
I love Lisa's studio albums, but the 'live' episode couldn't have been worse. I had to get home to listen to some 'proper music' to align myself back. This adds on poor Bossa Nova (which I really love..) live concerts. Lisa Wahlandt, Ana Caram, Olivia Ong, have great studio recordings but their live sets fall mostly flat. Past greats which we'll never see again include Louis Armstrong, Shirley Horn, Ella Fitzgerald, Astrud Gilerberto and one of the favourties, Eva Cassidy!!!!
Now I'm hesitant to have high hopes for other Jazz / Bossa artists. We look forward to Stacey Kent, Diane Reeves (the very best concert we've ever been for Jazz), Sara K, Norah Jones, Noon, Emi Fujita, Janet Seidel, Alison Krauss!!
Till the next Jazz concert, !
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