I was gonna continue with a chronological account of events and records but while listening to records and reading I stumbled into findings that show that even when we think we have some good insight on something there's always some details that we overlooked or even never knew at all, and this one is related to the catalyst of the original post: the reception of bossa nova in Japan.
All started when I decided to properly listen to the solo Astrud Gilberto records for the first time. Here is something that may shock the american readers, as Astrud not only was once the wife of the father of bossa nova but also the singer of the Getz/Gilberto version of Garota de Ipanema, the first ever record of the song that was released and that catapulted the bossa nova into global stardom, but as a Brazilian I rarely ever listened to Astrud or knew someone who listened or talked about her. In the social circles I participated during my life every time the 60's bossa nova leaning music was brought up everyone knew and talked about João, Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Baden Powell, Nara Leão, Elis Regina, Chico Buarque, Edu Lobo, Caetano Veloso and so on but Astrud was rarely talked about, I myself never been much interested in her because she made her records on the US and I think there's this collective assumption, I don't know when I it was formed in my mind but I know that was also a opinion brought to me by other people, that it was in the US where they watered down our music, were the "easy listening elevator music" concept was born and that we rightly abhorred, that the "real" brazilian records were made here and the americans never get it right (I still think this has some truth to it, even knowing it's a biased perception).
So when I first wanted to talk about her I was interested in hearing the brazilian composer's songs that she recorded at her career, as they some times made english lyrics for songs that I first heard in portuguese and always amuses me figuring out how close the american guy got to the original meaning or how long he missed the mark to make something that would still be able to fit the original melody. That's when I heard this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8F9ztKh_Ko
Original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soWqSb5FZZg
Japanese "Mas Que Nada"
https://youtu.be/1RvJlAaZBQE
Jorge Ben original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg0XftC43Zo
Japanese "Manhã de Carnaval"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOAJPx0i-WY
Luiz Bonfá and Elizeth Cardoso original
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOT8KZX9sNE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q7GkIBTqys
And also Astrud singing "Manhã de Carnaval" in portuguese
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CPnB9RvxYs
Astrud recorded an entire album singing in japanese, sometimes alternating with portuguese in the same song, released in 1970. The only information I could find about it was some user on rateryourmusic claiming some sources said Sadao Watanabe and band accompanied her. As he is the bossa nova guy in Japan this may be right.
The year 1970 it's already late in the bossa nova mania, though. The first brazilian musician to sing in Japan was Maysa in 1960, invited by a brazilian airline company wanting to promote it's just inaugurated Rio de Janeiro-Tokyo flights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6h274YgOYM
In the interview the guy speaking with her twice remarks of the japanese audience interest on the Black Orpheus movie screening at the time, asking if the carnaval and samba depicted in it was accurate to real life, and while it had a Tom Jobim and Luis Bonfa composed soundtrack and even Elizeth Cardoso and João Gilberto performances it did not featured a song or perfomance by Maysa himself. This made her, visibly pissed off, respond: "Since who's gonna sing today is me, I need to clarify some things: the samba and carnaval really is like that, but the type of samba that I sing has nothing in common with the carnaval samba." She sang samba-canção, after all. The japanese speakers in the forum could tell how much of her response the guy translated to the host of the show.
But Maysa did not toured there to sing bossa nova. I came back to my book to find some info on Astrud Gilberto passage in Japan, but instead it had another info: that Nara Leão and Sergio Mendes made a Japan tour together in 1964. Sergio Mendes probably had the greater commercial success of all the brazilian musicians during the 60's. As an example his cover of The Beatles "Fool On The Hill" sold 4 million copies, a feat that the proper Magical Mystery Tour record would only achieve in the 80's. McCartney himself would write a letter thanking him for the record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XvDdCY0Fc8
And in the period of 1966-1968 Sergio Mendes extensive touring including a passage for 27 japanese cities, twice a year. As with Astrud Gilberto I also never had interest on listening much of Sergio Mendes american output, with I think is even more stupid now cause his Brasil 60's band were the same musicians that played on lots of the brazilian records pre-1965 that I listened, like the drummer Dom Um Romão.
At the time of the Japan tour with Sergio Mendes, Nara Leão had recorded her first solo album and was showing signs of wanting to distance herself from the bossa nova.. It had no Tom Jobim songs, although it had Vinicius de Moraes songs with new partner Baden Powell, and had songs from the "samba de morro" black composers Zé Keti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsOEtK41li0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycH0rXOCaM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0nj8W5-g0U
Cartola,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-yfBR5E8hU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpTVlJJtjUk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfPODEidnqU
and Nelson Cavaquinho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h1R0EULHnc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8uQm4hTH8w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2BwQkoR2Us
This tour was being promoted by Rhodia fashion company in a publicity campaign called Brazilian Stylings, so it relayed heavily on the bossa nova standards. When Nara wanted to add those sambas to the repertoire she was faced with protests by Sergio, with did not see fit those songs within a fashion show campaign. When she successfully sang them it was accompanied only by the other musicians as the piano stayed silently. Her decisions also had relation with the political climate on the country, as the businessman-military right wing dictatorship had already began in the country with the support of the usual suspects like the USA government Latin America military coups division (who is still active to this day as we saw in Bolivia 2019, some things doesn't change much here if you guys elect Obama or a psycho fascist like your last president). Nara felt that the majority of bossa nova compositions to that point were too detached from the social struggles that people were facing here. As I believe this was an one time excursion for Nara in the 60's she must have became more known to the japanese public of the time as a singer of Garota de Ipanema than by her actual albums. Garota de Ipanema also was the name of her 1985 album recorded in Japan by request of the record label, which only was released in Brasil on the next year.
[URL=https://i.imgur.com/9IInGv9.jpg]
[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/9IInGv9.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Here's her singing two Tom Jobim songs to promote that album in japanese television. It's interesting that in the second song, Samba do Avião, the arrangement it's more akin to a slower paced "choro" or "chorinho", one of the classic pre-bossa nova samba genres with an ensemble playing some of it's characteristic instruments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReCCGLrkues
By the 70's more brazilian musicians were doing tours in Japan, as attested by live albums of the time recorded by the likes of Sergio Mendes, Elizeth Cardoso, Elis Regina, and by the 80's almost all of the great brazilian stars were touring there. I believe that if some of the bossa nova spread could be traced to singular brazilian musicians besides japanese ones recording in the genre, it would have a lot to do with Sergio Mendes popularity there. João Gilberto could have the popular records but he also did not made any shows outside the US until the end of the 60's (or record a new album after Getz/Gilberto for that matter) as he was living there with his second wife, Miucha, with whom he would have his second child, Bebel Gilberto. She was also Chico Buarque's older sister and both mother and daughter would became professional singers.
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