Kimiko Kasai -- Vibration

I guess I've been doing quite a few articles based on albums and singles from 1977 this week. However, I just had to add this one as well concerning former jazz singer Kimiko Kasai（笠井紀美子）since I finally got her album "Tokyo Special" in the mail today. It took several weeks for it to arrive since there was a sticking point with the other album that I had ordered with it...a compilation of techno kayo that would never come since the originating company eventually stated that there wasn't enough interest to make it worthwhile to print another batch of the CD. C'est dommage! However, the funny thing was that the postman who usually called me up at the security door must have arrived while I was out getting the paper at the nearby convenience store. He ended up literally squeezing the package with Ms. Kasai in it into the family mailbox. I had to do some emergency surgery with a box cutter to extract the CD!

No matter....I was just happy to get "Tokyo Special" intact. I got the CD initially because of the ballad "Natsu no Hajime no Image"（夏の初めのイメージ）that is Track 3. Now, I've got the whole kit and kaboodle, and it was nice to hear this alternately relaxing and funky album on a hot Friday afternoon. The first track is "Vibration" which is this funky entry that has Kasai putting on a bit of a sultry cat of a performance evoking images of the hot summer streets of the city. Dang, for a jazz singer, she could really strut on those old platform shoes.

"Vibration", which also has the alternate title of "Love Celebration", has some fine pedigree behind it. Prolific lyricist Kazumi Yasui（安井かずみ）provided the words; in fact, she was responsible for writing for all of the tracks on "Tokyo Special". And none other than Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）gave the groove to the melody.

Ebisu Garden Place