Saturday, April 20, 2013

Chika Ueda -- I WILL



Chika Ueda's （上田知華）"I WILL" was a song that I came across while I was watching Fuji-TV one night, and a commercial came on for this Thursday night drama titled "Vingt-Cinq Ans-Kekkon"(ヴァンサンカン。。。結婚/25 Years Old....Marriage). I had no real interest in the show starring Narumi Yasuda and Momoko Kikuchi, but the theme song caught my ear. It was this slow romantic ballad with a sax solo by Wilton Felder, who was a founding member of the American jazz/R&B group The Jazz Crusaders. The other instrument highlighted was the warm and mellow voice of singer-songwriter Ueda. "I WILL" isn't a jazz song but I think Ueda has the pipes for the genre.

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
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4 comments:

  1. JTMApril 21, 2013 at 3:38 AM

    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.

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    1. J-CanuckApril 22, 2013 at 4:25 PM

      Well, now, I really am impressed about Wilton Felder! The guy behind one of Steve McQueen's movies helping out on a J-Pop song.

      I'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!

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  2. AnonymousMay 15, 2015 at 6:35 AM

    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.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgscGEo9-A0

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    1. J-CanuckMay 17, 2015 at 12:21 AM

      Hello there.

      Thanks 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.

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