Sumiko Yamagata -- Moonlight Jitterbug （ムーンライト・ジルバ）

Sumiko Yamagata（やまがたすみこ） is another singer who I only discovered from "Japanese City Pop" (profiled under Media) a couple of years back. The Tokyo native started writing songs from the 6th grade in elementary school, and was eventually recruited by Japan Columbia in 1972. She started writing and singing folk songs but in the mid-70s, Yamagata moved over to New Music. When the move happened, she left the writing and composing duties to others for the most part.

Her 10th single, "Moonlight Jitterbug", released in July 1977, isn't a jitterbug at all but an easygoing bossa nova song. It was also part of her 7th studio album, "FLYING"which was also released in the same month. I decided to get that album just on the looks of the jacket alone. In the video above (not any more since that video got taken down), there are images of her former folkie look before she took on a more dramatic appearance in her New Music era. Strangely enough, the song was written and composed by one-half of the rock band, Happy End, Takashi Matsumoto and Shigeru Suzuki（松本隆・鈴木茂）.

I've heard "Moonlight Jitterbug" a couple of times now. She's not exactly the second coming of Astrud Gilberto but I still want to absorb as much of "FLYING"as I can before rendering a final decision. Actually, for the longest time, I'd been trying to figure out what "jiruba"(ジルバ）meant before finally finding out that it stood for "jitterbug". A number of kayo kyoku songs use that word in the title.

Sumiko Yamagata -- FLYING