Akiko Kobayashi -- Kuchibiru Swing (くちびるスウィング）

First off, I would like to say that I'm happy to live in a country which includes Holly Cole, Michael Buble and Diana Krall as citizens. As much as I was listening to kayo kyoku over the speakers as a tiny Canuck, I was also listening to my fair share of standards. Out and out jazz by Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Bill Evans and company would be years into my future, but my ears back in the 60s and 70s were usually filled with the sweet sounds and big bands of Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and The Ames Brothers. So, it's great to realize that decades later that jazz vocalizing still has a thriving place in popular music.

The same has also held true in Japan for almost as long as jazz has flourished in the United States. I finally went to the Jazz side of the Force during my days in Japan when I bought my first compilation disc of pianist Bill Evans, although I have yet to fully explore the genre of J-Jazz....Japanese jazz artists (I do have my CDs of Kei Kobayashi and Hiroko Kokubu, though). Still, the jazz idiom has also managed to percolate over to the kayo kyoku/J-Pop side of things over the decades. Singers from Hibari Misora to Mika Nakashima have touched upon their inner Billie Holiday from time to time.

And so has Akiko Kobayashi（小林明子）. I've mentioned the fact that she has that voice to cover the pop repertoire of The Carpenters with ease, but with that same mellow voice, she has been able to dabble into that jazz style of the 50s and 60s as well. She first did it with her 5th single, "Kokoro Midarete"（心みだれて）, a torch song ideal for Valentine's Day. Then, she continued on that theme with her next single, "Kuchibiru Swing"(Lip Swing) which came out in February 1987. Composed by Kobayashi and written by Reiko Yukawa（湯川れい子）, I first heard the song when it was part of her concert album, "In Concert - A Changing" which came out later that year. An upbeat tune that was made  for a Shiseido Cosmetics campaign commercial, "Kuchibiru Swing" rather reminds me of all those studio orchestras that used to play on those old American variety shows of the 60s such as "The Jackie Gleason Show" and all those Bob Hope specials (forgive me, you younger folks if the names are unfamiliar to you). Strangely enough now, watching those episodes of the Fox Network's "Family Guy"when Seth MacFarlane starts on his big band kick reminds me of this Kobayashi song.

Kobayashi has given her tribute to Karen Carpenter, but I sometimes wonder what could be accomplished if she ever decided to give Linda Ronstadt during her "What's New?" phase a try.