bossa for bossa's sake

this year is the 50th anniversary of the musical genre called bossa nova and record labels are rushing to cash in on the popularity of this genre.

one of the best-selling albums in cd shops in malaysia for the past few months is this album called "back to love in bossa moments". it is a cover version album of pop classics done in bossa nova style by unknown singers.

i picked up a copy and was quite horrified by what malaysians like to listen today. while "bleeding love" (leona lewis) and "you are beautiful" (james blunt) were quite successfully re-arranged into bossa nova, the rest of the songs sound decidedly contrived and out-of-place. can you imagine kylie minoque's "i should be so lucky" and elton john's "your song" done in bossa nova? i shudder in disgust.

let me tell you, not every song is suitable for bossa nova or jazz arrangement. the problem with this album lies on the weak arrangement, wrong choice of songs and ordinary performance by the singers.

but this is what the malaysian market wants, i suppose :-(

listen to roger wang's re-arrangement of cai qin's audiophile classic "oblivious time" (bei yu wang de shi guang) below and you would understand what i meant by "the correct choice of song for bossa nova".