Guernica -- Ginrin wa Utau（銀輪は唄う）

Wikimedia Commons

Jun Togawa（戸川純）is a singer whose works have popped up periodically on the blog over the years, beginning with KKP writer nikala's article on her "Yumemiru Yakusoku" (夢見る約束) and my own article on Togawa's "Zukei no Koi"（図形の恋）, both from the 1980s. My own impression of the singer was that she was an avant-garde post-punk/New Wave chanteuse who could be seen as a precursor to Ringo Shiina（椎名林檎）. 

Recently though, commenter YMOfan04 let me in on some information about Togawa. Before all of that post-punk and New Wave tour de force hit my eyes and ears for the first time, the Tokyo native had also been a member of the band Guernica which formed in 1981. Togawa formed it with keyboardist and composer Koji Ueno（上野耕路）and stage designer/costumer and lyricist Keiichi Ohta（太田螢一）. In this particular period of Japanese music culture when the Golden Age of Aidoru, 50s rock n' roll, technopop and City Pop were grabbing for their share of the popularity pie, Guernica was devoted in bringing the sounds of early 20th century kayo kyoku or ryukoka and military marches back to life. Incidentally, Guernica, which was also the title of Picasso's legendary anti-war painting from 1937, wasn't the first choice as a name for the trio; initially it had been Intonarumori which were musical instruments devised by an Italian futurist, but they changed their mind.

Guernica's first and only official single was "Ginrin wa Utau" (Singing of Silver Rings) which was released in December 1982. Backed by a full orchestra, Togawa was the vocalist here and the song sounded just like some of that beautiful music, as it was called a century ago, I heard on the old movies and television shows such as "The Little Rascals". Beautiful music were the melodies that were played at those fancy dance parties or soirees to contrast with the so-called "evil" music known as jazz back in the day. One can imagine Togawa being her melody moppet ancestor singing behind a huge NBC microphone on a New York soundstage, and I think that's where member Ohta brought some more of that yesteryear magic while dressing the others in the finery of the day. Quite the contrast with the type of music that Togawa would sing a few years later. Still, Guernica would release three albums up to the end of the 1980s.

Junretsu -- Junretsu Damashii（純烈魂）

By Yosemite via Wikimedia Commons

No "Shin BS Nihon no Uta"（新BS日本の歌）tonight but that's OK since we've got family coming over for dinner so we can't really be watching TV. Still, that means we haven't had any kayo programming here for a week since we weren't also able to catch "Uta Con"（うたコン）due to some emergency coverage of Japanese government deliberations.

However, last weekend when we could watch "Shin BS Nihon no Uta", semi-regular guests Junretsu（純烈）appeared to sing "Junretsu Damashii" (The Soul of Junretsu). This was the vocal group's 15th single from February 2024.

On the face of it, this might sound rather self-congratulatory but it's really a sweet thank-you song to the fans for their support all the way from their time entertaining guests at hot spring resorts. Junretsu leader Kazuyoshi Sakai（酒井一圭）was behind the grateful lyrics while the Old Man of Enka himself, Saburo Kitajima（北島三郎）under his Joji Hara（原譲二）pseudonym, provided the sweet and laidback melody. "Junretsu Damashii" reached No. 4 on Oricon.

Toshiko Tamamushi -- Ochibazaiku (Watashi wa Ima)（おちば細工 -わたしは今）

By Lystopad via Wikimedia Commons

 

I've had this one on the back burner for a while, so I thought it was time to bring it to the light. It's another obscure song and apparently for Toshiko Tamamushi（玉虫俊子）, this was her one-and-only single to ever come out. There are some sites that talk about the obscurity of "Ochibazaiku (Watashi wa Ima)" (The Craft of Fallen Leaves ~ Me as I am Now) from December 1982 but I couldn't find any information about who the singer was and where she came from.

And that's too bad since I think her vocals are pretty good. Written by Uichi Ohwada（大和田宇一）and composed by Tatsuya Ogino（荻野達也）, "Ochibazaiku" strikes me as being an old-fashioned kayo kyoku most likely about heartbreak (autumn is the perfect season for that when it comes to the Showa Era music) that sounds as if it had been made a decade earlier and it also has a bit of Gallic flavour infused. At the same time, the first several seconds of the song reminds me of Mizue Takada's（高田みづえ）"Ai no Imagination" (愛のイマジネーション）that came out the previous year. Tamamushi has been referred to as an enka aidoru or an enkadol but I really don't get that vibe through this one song. She was apparently just a young lady with that one tune to her name.

Jun Matsue -- JAL Narita Hatsu（JAL成田発）

By PSNyan via Wikimedia Commons

Narita Airport out in Chiba Prefecture was the air hub that I mostly used during my adventures in Japan between 1981 and 2011 before Haneda Airport in Tokyo itself got its second wind and became my new arrival/departure terminal when I was visiting Japan in the 2010s. Haneda may have become the new shiny place but I will still cherish ol' Narita for that kaiten sushi restaurant and the massage chairs in the lounge.

So, coming across Spoozys leader and singer-songwriter Jun Matsue's（松江潤）"JAL Narita Hatsu" (JAL Departure from Narita), I felt all sorts of nostalgia. Written and composed by the singer, it's not just my old memories of using the actual airport that's fueling my nostalgia but the fact that for a song that belongs in his April 2005 album "GO GETTER", it sounds awfully like old-school City Pop with that certain groove and horns that could belong in a Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）tune from the 70s or 80s. In fact, I had to make sure that the song was indeed from the mid-2000s rather than from an earlier decade. 

My trip to Sapporo would have been perfect for this song. However, as it turns out, I departed Tokyo for Hokkaido from Haneda Airport and it was an ANA flight, not JAL. 

Vince Guaraldi Trio -- Charlie Brown Theme

Wikimedia Commons

Earlier today, just purely by accident, I found out that the late jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi would have celebrated his 98th birthday today (he passed away in 1976 at the age of 47). He does have a file here on "Kayo Kyoku Plus" since my love for "Peanuts" and he's basically been the guy for "Peanuts" soundtracks. In fact, I can say with confidence that Guaraldi was the first piano player that I'd ever heard as a baby because of his fabulous work on "A Charlie Brown Christmas", the legendary Xmas animated special.

Speaking of "A Charlie Brown Christmas", I hadn't known until recently that this special and perhaps the entire "Peanuts" mass media franchise can thank their existence because of a documentary about the popular comic strip "Peanuts" that had been planned to air back in 1963 simply couldn't come to fruition due to financing woes. "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" was to have been the title for this documentary (the title was then used later for the 1969 feature film) by Lee Mendelson.

And yet, Guaraldi did come up with a 1963 soundtrack called "Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown" that contained the iconic "Linus & Lucy" which would become the theme for the overall "Peanuts" franchise and included in the soundtrack for the Christmas special a couple of years later. For years, I'd assumed that "Linus & Lucy" was the Charlie Brown theme and not the song titled after Chuck's best friend and biggest thorn in his side respectively. So, you can imagine when I finally found out the truth, I remarked that this would be a typically Charlie Brown development...the most famous song in the round-headed kid's world doesn't even have his name attached to it.

In fact, it wouldn't be for many more years that I discovered that there was a "Charlie Brown Theme" by Guaraldi. By that time, I was living in Japan and getting into jazz so picking up a few Guaraldi and "Peanuts" albums was becoming normal. Upon this discovery, I also found out about its inclusion in the 1963 soundtrack for the unaired documentary. Getting to hear it, it starts out sounding as if the jazzman had been imagining how Charlie Brown has lived his usual life: ambling laconically his way to and from school as Guaraldi plays with his keys. Then, the pacing and complexity amp up some more as Chuck handles his alternately contemplative and frustrating relationships with Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and everyone else in his world. It all reaches a surprisingly triumphant climax before the tune settles back down to the main ambling melody. Afterwards, I assume that Chuck hits bed or the bath to commiserate about why he can't talk to the red-haired girl or throw a decent pitch in baseball.

The fact that the documentary project failed ended up galvanizing Mendelson and a lot of other parties who loved "Peanuts" to get even more intense about getting something on the air, and they finally pulled it off in 1965.

Tokimeki Records feat. Mai Zaitsu -- Tsuki wa Mirror Ball（月はミラーボール）

 

Not sure what the situation is regarding the huge billowing mass of forest fire smoke that's been coming down into Southern Ontario for the past few days. Apparently, some winds were supposed to give us some respite from the smaze before returning tonight. Well, so far, I've got the window open but I haven't exactly been coughing up my lungs yet, so maybe this is a good development.

Anyways, I have another song by Tokimeki Records. Up to now, I've collected a small group of their songs which have been covers of some of the City Pop classics. But this time, the unit has come up with an original tune "Tsuki wa Mirror Ball" (Under the Mirror Moon) which came out in June. Still, as usual, a featured female vocalist is on the mike and her name is Mai Zaitsu（財津マイ）. I couldn't find out anything at all about her although she's been depicted as an anime character thus far in Yahoo Images. Her voice is nice and smoky alongside the Neo-City Pop showing some of that nocturnal bouncy rhythm (maybe good for the car stereo). The only other question that I have about the singer is whether she is a relative of Tulip singer-songwriter Kazuo Zaitsu（財津和夫）.

Teresa Noda -- Tropical Love（トロピカル ラブ）

 

For some reason, I'd been under the impression that actress-singer Teresa Noda（テレサ野田）had already been on KKP but apparently not; this is her first appearance on the blog, so I bid her welcome. Maybe it was something about the name or a similarity in album/single covers.

Anyways, Noda hails from Okinawa as the daughter of a second-generation Japanese-American man and a Japanese woman (according to her J-Wiki profile, she had been far better in English than Japanese). She made her debut as an actress in the early 1970s and it would be another several years before she began recording those singles she released with the first one coming out in 1977. Incidentally, she's had a number of different stage names during her career including her real name of Tamaki Saionji（西園寺環）.

Her third and final single under the name of Teresa Noda to date is "Tropical Love" from May 1979 which was created by the golden duo of lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）and composer Kazuhiko Kato（加藤和彦）with Ryuichi Sakamoto（坂本龍一）behind the arrangement. I'm not sure if it would be considered City Pop, but it does have those disco strings and a strong reggae beat. Noda does have a resonant and attractively creamy voice here.