Well, after reading Marcos V's list of Carnaval-inspired J-Pop songs the other day and having a talk with him via the comments section, I decided to put up one of the samba-inspired kayo kyoku from way back as right now, people are enjoying the nights away all this week down in Rio. Here in Toronto, our Extreme Cold Weather Alert was just cancelled. Oh, Weather Goddess, thou art a stern mistress!
Mariko Takahashi's（高橋真梨子）"Samba Magic" comes from her 6th album from 1982, "Dear", which was one of the first articles I wrote for "Kayo Kyoku Plus". With all of the emotional ballads on that album, including "Farewell", it was nice to have something for Takahashi to have fun with. Written by Chinfa Kan（康珍化） and composed by Kingo Hamada (濱田金吾）who also can do some fine jazz-inspired stuff), "Samba Magic" glides in straight from the previous song, "See You Again", one of my favourites on the album and the very first song that I ever heard by the veteran singer (I hope I can find a recording of it somewhere on the Net).
Perhaps compared to the real samba from Brazil, "Samba Magic" might sound a bit light but it still brings a lot of pleasure since I've been listening to "Dear" for years. The 1987 concert video above of Takahashi performing it is even more laid-back, but I'm just glad that I could find some evidence of the song.
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