"After Hours" is Mariko Takahashi's（高橋真梨子） 7th album, released in November 1982, some 7 months after my favourite album of hers, "Dear". Like "Dear", "After Hours" is a record filled with ballads and mid-tempo songs which is her forte but there is more of an American country music and jazz nuance infused into the music....not exactly the midnight jazz that the title may suggest.
The above video is from Track 5, "Come Back to Me", a pop ballad with a hint of Boz Scaggs' "We're All Alone" at the beginning.
(karaoke version)
"Old Time Jazz" is one of two straight jazz pieces on the album. "Jazz Singer", which unfortunately I couldn't find on YouTube, is a Cool Jazz ballad with a bit of a tribute to Chet Baker. The former song goes back to the Glenn Miller days and Takahashi gives a fine rendition of this song written and composed by Mikio Sato（佐藤三樹夫）. I have to say that she makes a great jazz vocalist.
The third song for this article at 14:45 below is a straight pop song, "Onna Tomodachi" (女友達...Female Friend). Also written and composed by Sato, it's another lovely ballad by Takahashi which would belong just as comfortably on the previous album, "Dear" as it does here.
(full album)
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