One of America's first champions of Brazilian bossa nova was Felix Grant. A jazz disc jockey in Washington D.C., Grant hosted The Album Sound on WMAL. His voice had a soft, sophisticated on-air sound ...
I don't know when Japan caught the bossa nova bug, but I suspect it was in 1964, when Sergio Mendes toured there with Nara, the Brazilian vocalist. Helen Merrill's chill Bossa Nova in Tokyo album, ...