The remarkable thing about this Rhythm Kayo is how the Japanese songwriters back in the early postwar period were more than happy to incorporate at least some hint of the exotic song stylings from other countries and bring in the names of dances into the titles such as "rock", "flamenco" or "boogie". And yet, there was still that baseline of kayo in the songs. But of course, that borrowing of outside styles would continue later into the century through New Music and City Pop and the like.
Of course, "Tokyo Boogie Woogie" would lead things off on NHK's Shibuya stage but then the guests went into another one of Kasagi's numbers that I hadn't ever heard before. Titled "Jungle Boogie" (no relation whatsoever to Kool & The Gang's namesake song from the 70s), the original was sung by Japan's boogie queen back in 1948 for the movie "Yoidore Tenshi"(醉いどれ天使...Drunken Angel), the first collaboration between legendary director Akira Kurosawa(黒澤明)and famed actor Toshiro Mifune(三船敏郎). In fact, it was Kurosawa who was behind the lyrics of the song which Kasagi lunged into like a hungry cheetah. There were certain points where I thought she was going to channel a really ecstatic Louis Armstrong. Ryoichi Hattori(服部良一)took care of the melody; he was also the composer behind the more famous "Tokyo Boogie Woogie".
Here is a brief excerpt from "Yoidore Tenshi".
Thanks for the information. I loaded the excerpt from Drunken Angel where appear Kasagi Shizuko singing Jungle Boogie
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpAAiHXlTjI&t=
This is the real link to Jungle Boogie in Drunken Angel. https://youtu.be/zEUi9lbHtIU
ReplyDeleteHi, Ricardo.
DeleteThanks very much for the links.