The Tokyo-born Ueda started her music career while she was studying at The Tokyo College of Music in the 1970s and brought together fellow musicians consisting of a couple of violinists, a cellist and someone on the viola to accompany her piano and vocalizing. Chika Ueda and KARYOBIN debuted in 1978, releasing 8 singles and 6 original albums into the 1980s before breaking up. Ueda also released some solo albums and singles with "I WILL" being her first release in July 1991. It didn't last too long on the charts but it went as high as No. 12 on Oricon. There was also her 3rd album of the same title released in September of that year which ranked as high as No. 7 (both stats are from www.oricon.co.jp).
Ueda has also been a prolific songwriter for various artists such as WINK, Noriko Sakai(酒井法子), Hiroko Yakushimaru(薬師丸ひろ子), and notably for Miki Imai(今井美樹) and Yoko Minamino(南野陽子). A couple of her songs for Imai are here on this blog: "Boogie-Woogie Lonesome High Heel" and "Piece of My Wish".
Chika Ueda -- I WILL |
Thanks J-Canuck for this great post on 上田知華's 「 I Will」. Very nice song. I love Wilton Fedler's sax accompaniment (his "Bullitt" theme is also great). I'm curious to see that drama 『ヴァンサンカン。。。結婚』 as I'm a huge fan of both 安田成美 and 菊池桃子. Ueda's collaborations with かりょーびん are definitely pretty interesting with almost a classical sound to their songs.
ReplyDeleteWell, now, I really am impressed about Wilton Felder! The guy behind one of Steve McQueen's movies helping out on a J-Pop song.
DeleteI've seen Narumi Yasuda in that classic drama "Sugao no Mama de" with Akina Nakamori, and in the Japanese remake of "Roman Holiday" with Masakazu Tamura. She's quite lovely. Noritake Kinashi is one lucky dude!
Here's another rare Hiromi Iwasaki clip. It's part of her 1978 recital concert, and as the title and her narration says, Chika Ueda and Karyobin are playing backing. The title says 1979, but the wiki entry for Chika Ueda says 1978.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgscGEo9-A0
Hello there.
DeleteThanks for the information. I think the combination of Karyobin and Iwasaki is just perfect. Both of them complement each other in terms of their sophistication.